HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
EVENTS OF 1811
General Events of 1812 SPRING JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH SUMMER APRIL MAY JUNE FALL JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER WINTER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER
Following the death of Jesus Christ there was a period of readjustment that lasted for approximately one million years. –Kurt Vonnegut, THE SIRENS OF TITAN
THE NEW-ENGLAND ALMANACK FOR 1812. By Isaac Bickerstaff. Providence, Rhode Island: John Carter.
Alexander Young, Jr. entered the Boston Latin School.
Prideaux John Selby ran for Parliament to represent the borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed in Northumberland, as a reformer, but lost to Henry Heneage St Paul.
Published posthumously, Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian’s MÉMOIRES D’UN JEUNE ESPAGNOL.
An uncle, Johann Jakob Meier, began to tutor Karl Bodmer in engraving.
Richard Sharp, who had never married, adopted an infant named Maria Kinnaird who had been orphaned during a volcanic eruption in the West Indies.
The Reverend Thaddeus Mason Harris’s EARNEST CAUTION AGAINST SUICIDE (Boston: Printed by Joshua Belcher).
EVENTS OF 1813 HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Charles Brooks of Medford entered Harvard College.
NEW “HARVARD MEN”
Fairhaven was set off from New Bedford, incorporating Acushnet in its corporate limits.
George Waddington was admitted as a scholar at Trinity College of Cambridge University. His poem “Columbus” won in a competition sponsored by Gentleman’s Magazine. WADDINGTON’S COLUMBUS
The one-story heavily timbered variety store structure that eventually would become the central building of Concord’s Colonial Inn passed at this point from Deacon John White to Messrs. Hemmenway and Daniel Shattuck, with the deacon retaining an interest in the enterprise. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
In the US presidential election, with President James Madison bidding for a second term in office, DeWitte Clinton of New York received 89 electoral votes, the incumbent received 128, and the incumbent of course won the election and became the President-Elect.1 The only ringer in this was that 21 of Madison’s votes had 3 come from the owners of black slaves, who were of course themselves voting the /5ths constitutional vote of their slaves (read your Constitution, fellow) in the pursuit of the interests of this property of theirs. This made the voters of the North very angry, and there was talk about how much they were at the mercy of something they were learning to term “niggerocracy.” It made them realize that, even if their Northern white male candidate had had more electoral votes than that Southern white male one, that Southern white male candidate would still have won over their Northern white male one. There was something about this which seemed, in retrospect, somehow unfair. “All we’re asking for is a level playing field!” “Freedom and justice for all!” The groundwork was being laid for the New York City draft riots of 1863, during which free Northern black citizens would be hanged and burned on the street lamp-poles because angry white citizens believed it was the fault of these free Northern black citizens that white men were being forced to go off and fight the Southern white owners of Southern black slaves.
American Presidential Elections 1789-1864a
Presidential Political Electoral Candidate Party Votes
1789 GEORGE WASHINGTON No formally organized party 692
JOHN ADAMS No formally organized party 34
JOHN JAY No formally organized party 9
R. H. HARRISON No formally organized party 6
JOHN RUTLEDGE No formally organized party 6
JOHN HANCOCK No formally organized party 4
GEORGE CLINTON No formally organized party 3
SAMUEL HUNTINGTON No formally organized party 2
JOHN MILTON No formally organized party 2
JAMES ARMSTRONG No formally organized party 1
BENJAMIN LINCOLN No formally organized party 1
1. At 5'4'', James Madison had been the first American president regularly to wear trousers (trousers not here depicted): HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
American Presidential Elections 1789-1864a
Presidential Political Electoral Candidate Party Votes
EDWARD TELFAIR No formally organized party 1
(NOT VOTED) No formally organized party 44
1792 GEORGE WASHINGTON Federalist 132
JOHN ADAMS Federalist 77
GEORGE CLINTON Democratic-Republican 50
THOMAS JEFFERSON 4
AARON BURR 1
1796 JOHN ADAMS Federalist 71
THOMAS JEFFERSON Democratic-Republican 68
THOMAS PINCKNEY Federalist 59
AARON BURR Antifederalist 30
SAMUEL ADAMS Democratic-Republican 5
OLIVER ELLSWORTH Federalist 11
GEORGE CLINTON Democratic-Republican 7
JOHN JAY Independent-Federalist 5
JAMES IREDELL Federalist 3
GEORGE WASHINGTON Federalist 2
JOHN HENRY Independent 2
S. JOHNSTON Independent-Federalist 2
C. C. PINCKNEY Independent-Federalist 1
1800 THOMAS JEFFERSON Democratic-Republican 733
AARON BURR Democratic-Republican 73
JOHN ADAMS Federalist 65
C. C. PINCKNEY Federalist 64
JOHN JAY Federalist 1
1804 THOMAS JEFFERSON Democratic-Republican 162
C. C. PINCKNEY Federalist 14 HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
American Presidential Elections 1789-1864a
Presidential Political Electoral Candidate Party Votes
1808 JAMES MADISON Democratic-Republican 122
C. C. PINCKNEY Federalist 47
GEORGE CLINTON Independent-Republican 6
(NOT VOTED) 1
1812 JAMES MADISON Democratic-Republican 128
DE WITT CLINTON Fusion 89
(NOT VOTED) 1 a. Minor candidates polling less than 10,000 popular votes and receiving no electoral votes are excluded. Until 1804, each elector voted for two men without indicating which was to be president and which vice president. Because the two houses of the New York legislature could not agree on electors, the state did not cast its electoral vote. It was some time before North Carolina and Rhode Island ratified the Constitution. When Jefferson and Aaron Burr received equal numbers of electoral votes, the decision was referred to the House of Representatives. The 12th Amendment (1804) provided that electors cast separate ballots for president and vice president. In cases in which no candidate received a majority of the electoral votes, the decision was made by the House of Representatives. This is all based upon data from the HISTORICAL STATISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES, COLONIAL TIMES TO 1957 (1960), STATISTICAL ABSTRACT OF THE UNITED STATES, 1969, 90th ed. (1969), and CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY’S GUIDE TO U.S. ELECTIONS, 3rd ed. (1994).
Captain Paul Cuffe’s A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE SETTLEMENT AND PRESENT SITUATION OF THE COLONY OF SIERRA LEONE IN AFRICA (NY: Samuel Wood)
In about this year Aaron Jones and Winthrop Faulkner built a new sawmill at “Mill Corner” in South Acton.
Augustin Jean Fresnel would receive much credit for the improvement of the British lighthouse system, but at this point the Reverend David Brewster was already describing the dioptric apparatus which Fresnel would eventually choose. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Henry Marie Brackenridge was appointed deputy attorney general of the Territory of Orleans (Louisiana), and district judge of Louisiana. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Henry Hart Milman won the Newdigate prize for best undergraduate verse composition with a poem on the Apollo Belvedere statue in the Vatican, entitled “Belvidere Apollo.”
“Too fair to worship, too divine to love.”
Heard ye the arrow hurtle in the sky? Heard ye the dragon monster’s deathful cry? In settled majesty of calm disdain, Proud of his might, yet scornful of the slain, The heavenly archer stands, — no human birth, No perishable denizen of earth: Youth blooms immortal in his beardless face, A god in strength, with more than godlike grace; All, all divine, — no struggling muscle glows, HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Through heaving vein no mantling life-blood flows, But animate with deity alone, In deathless glory lives the breathing stone.
Bright kindling with a conqueror’s stern delight, His keen eye tracks the arrow’s fateful flight; Burns his indignant cheek with vengeful fire, And his lip quivers with insulting ire: Firm fixed his tread, yet light, as when on high He walks the impalpable and pathless sky: The rich luxuriance of his hair, confined In graceful ringlets, wantons on the wind, That lifts in sport his mantle’s drooping fold Proud to display that form of faultless mould.
Mighty Ephesian! with an eagle’s flight Thy proud soul mounted through the fields of light, Viewed the bright conclave of Heaven’s blest abode, And the cold marble leapt to life a god: Contagious awe through breathless myriads ran, And nations bowed before the work of man. For mild he seemed, as in Elysian bowers, Wasting in careless ease the joyous hours; Haughty, as bards have sung, with princely sway Curbing the fierce flame-breathing steeds of day; Beauteous as vision seen in dreamy sleep By holy maid on Delphi’s haunted steep, Mid the dim twilight of the laurel grove, Too fair to worship, too divine to love.
Yet on that form in wild delirious trance With more than reverence gazed the maid of France, Day after day the love-sick dreamer stood With him alone, nor thought it solitude! To cherish grief, her last, her dearest care, Her one fond hope, — to perish of despair. Oft as the shifting light her sight beguiled, Blushing she shrunk, and thought the marble smiled: Oft breathless listening heard, or seemed to hear, A voice of music melt upon her ear. Slowly she waned, and cold and senseless grown, Closed her dim eyes, herself benumbed to stone. Yet love in death a sickly strength supplied: Once more she gazed, then feebly smiled and died. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
The family of Noah Webster, Jr. relocated to a farm near Amherst, Massachusetts, where he would serve in the Massachusetts legislature and help found Amherst College while pursuing his AMERICAN DICTIONARY project.
In his workspace he was relying upon a circular table on which he had arranged dictionaries and grammars from perhaps 20 nations — he would methodically move around this circle, following each word under study through each of these reference tomes. AMHERST, MASS.
Mrs. Jane West’s SELECT TRANSLATIONS OF THE BEAUTIES OF MASSILLON. Her THE LOYALISTS: AN HISTORICAL NOVEL. THE LOYALISTS
After three years of marriage William Hayley and his 2d wife Mary Welford Hayley separated. There would be no children.
When North Carolina excluded blacks from its militia, an exception allowed for the unarmed blacks who provided marching music (basically drum and fife) for these white militia formations. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Upon the death of his father John Hallam, Henry Hallam came into a small estate in Lincolnshire. From this point he would devote himself to academic study (what extra money he would need would be supplied by a sinecure posting as Commissioner of Stamps).
The Reverend Vicesimus Knox II, D.D. retired and, no longer having the use of the parsonage, left Tunbridge for London, where he purchased the beautiful residence of Owen williams, Esq. M.P. upon the Adelphi Terrace.
In the preface to his THÉORIE ANALYTIQUE DES PROBABILITÉS, Pierre-Simon Laplace repeated and re-insisted upon the unscientific and unThoreauvian belief which he had asserted in 1776, that: “The present state of the system of nature is evidently a consequence of what it was in the preceding moment, and if we conceive of an intelligence which at a given instant comprehends all the relations of the entities of this universe, it could state the respective positions, motions, and general effects of all these entities at any time in the past or future.” It is interesting that as of our present year, only a nonscientist would assert any such conviction. Whatever one makes of this origin for the planetary system ... it is certain these elements are ordered in such a manner that they must enjoy the greatest stability, if foreign causes never trouble them. Only by this means [formation by the nebular hypothesis] are the movements of planets and satellites almost circular, and directed in the same sense and almost in the same plane. This system can only oscillate about a mean state, from which it can only deviate by very tiny amounts. The average movements of rotation and revolution of these different bodies are uniform.... It seems that nature arranged all bodies in the heavens in order to assure the duration of the system, and by means similar to those so admirably followed on earth for the conservation of individuals and the perpetuation of species.
The Reverend James Freeman published SERMONS ON PARTICULAR OCCASIONS, although without placing his name on it (this would pass through successive editions under various titles). HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
In this year and the following one, Isaac C. D’Israeli’s CALAMITIES OF AUTHORS.
A “Bank of the State of South Carolina” was created and Stephen Elliott, who had been active in sponsoring this new establishment, left the state legislature to become that new institution’s president. He removed his family to Charleston, South Carolina, where he would serve as the bank’s president until his death in 1830 (he would also preside over the Charleston Library Society, while teaching botany and natural history at the Medical College of South Carolina).
Doctor Walter Channing became editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and Surgery.
Charles Turner, Jr. resigned as a Lieutenant Commander in the Massachusetts Militia.
Thomas Campbell was delivering a series of lectures on poetry at the Royal Institution in London when Walter Scott suggested to him that he might offer himself as a candidate for the chair of literature at Edinburgh University.
Charles Butler’s LIFE OF BOSSUET.
When Elijah Hinsdale Burritt reached the age of 18 he became apprenticed in Simsbury, Connecticut to the blacksmith Samuel Booth.
Christian C.J. Bunsen’s treatise on the Athenian Law of Inheritance was awarded the university prize for essay of the year. A few months later the University of Jena would grant him an honorary degree of doctor of philosophy.
Alexander Wilson’s AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY; OR THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES (Philadelphia: Bradford and Inskeep, Volumes V and VI). AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
The Reverend Professor John Josias Conybeare became Regius Professor of Poetry at Oxford University, and
vicar of Batheaston near Bath. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
THE PARADISE OF DAINTY DEVICES, REPRINTED FROM THE EDITIONS OF 1576, 1580, & 1600. AND ENGLAND’S HELICON, FROM THE EDITIONS OF 1600 & 1614. WITH INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL, BY SIR EGERTON BRYDGES, K.J. (London: Printed by T. Bensley, Bolt Court, Fleet Street, for Robert Triphook, 37, St. James’s Street. 1812).
ENGLAND’S HELICON
(Henry Thoreau would eventually be checking this out of the Harvard Library. From it he would extract, for instance, Sir Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke’s “Another of His Cynthia,” a snippet of which he would use in A WEEK ON THE CONCORD AND MERRIMACK RIVERS.)
A WEEK: Friendship is, at any rate, a relation of perfect PEOPLE OF equality. It cannot well spare any outward sign of equal A WEEK obligation and advantage. The nobleman can never have a Friend among his retainers, nor the king among his subjects. Not that the parties to it are in all respects equal, but they are equal in all that respects or affects their Friendship. The one’s love is exactly balanced and represented by the other’s. Persons are only the vessels which contain the nectar, and the hydrostatic paradox is the symbol of love’s law. It finds its level and rises to its fountain-head in all breasts, and its slenderest column balances the ocean. “And love as well the shepherd can As can the mighty nobleman.” The one sex is not, in this respect, more tender than the other. A hero’s love is as delicate as a maiden’s.
SIR FULKE GREVILLE
Away with these self-loving lads, Whom Cupid’s arrow never glads. Away, poor souls that sigh and weep, In love of them that lie and sleep; For Cupid is a meadow god, And forceth none to kiss the rod.
God Cupid’s shaft, like destiny, Doth either good or ill decree. Desert is born out of his bow, Reward upon his feet doth go. What fools are they that have not known That Love likes no laws but his own? HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
My songs they be of Cynthia’s praise, I wear her rings on holy-days, On every tree I write her name, And every day I read the same. Where Honor, Cupid’s rival, is, There miracles are seen of his. If Cynthia crave her ring of me, I blot her name out of the tree. If doubt do darken things held dear, Then welfare nothing once a year. For many run, but one must win; Fools only hedge the cuckoo in. The worth that worthiness should move Is love, which is the due of love, And love as well the shepherd can, As can the mighty nobleman. Sweet nymph, ’tis true you worthy be, Yet without love, nought worth to me. LISTEN TO BARBARA SING IT
William Bullock’s Egyptian Hall at 170-171 on Piccadilly cost him £16,000. He called it the London Museum and it would initially contain some 15,000 items, growing eventually to 32,000 items. According to his blurb he had formed his collection “during seventeen years of arduous research at a cost of £30,000. Admission was l shilling or 1 guinea for an annual ticket.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Walter Scott’s MARMION; A TALE OF FLODDEN FIELD (Baltimore: Published by Joseph Cushing).
(Henry Thoreau would have a copy of this 1812 American edition in his personal library. The electronic copy we have from Google Books is, however, the 1813 version published in England.) SCOTT’S MARMION
Sir Alexander Mackenzie got married, returned to Scotland, and retired to Avoch on the Black Isle of the Moray Firth. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
From this year into 1814, Asher Benjamin and Ithiel Town would be designing the Center Church of New Haven, Connecticut.
Thomas Green Fessenden returned to the practice of law, in Bellows Falls, Vermont.
Isaac Bailey, the father of the infant Jacob Whitman Bailey, presented “A poem, delivered before the Philermenian Society of Brown University, on their anniversary, September, A.D. 1812.” (Although this effort was delivered only in September, it had already been printed up “at request of the society” in Providence, Rhode Island by David Hawkins as of June!) ISAAC BAILEY’S “POEM” HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
John Bartram, Jr. died. The Bartram Garden was left to his daughter Ann and her husband Robert Carr.
The Academy of Natural Sciences was founded in Philadelphia and William Bartram was elected to membership. THE SCIENCE OF 1812
Friend Bernard Barton’s METRICAL EFFUSIONS put him in contact with Robert Southey. Soon he would also make the acquaintance of James Hogg. He would be able to publish volume after volume of his poetry, until 1828.
Margaret Briggs was born, a daughter of Friend Isaac Briggs, surveyor.2
St. Bartholomew’s Church (Episcopal), successor to the 1758 Chapel of Ease, was established on the Hawlings River of Maryland (later moved to Laytonsville).
The Dismal Swamp Canal was fully operational.
Matthew Whittier, Friend John Greenleaf Whittier’s brother, was born.
It would have been in approximately this timeframe that the Whittier farm would have been being visited by “tramps,” and in particular by Jonathan Plummer, formerly the “poet lauriet (sic) to Lord Timothy Dexter”: The advent of wandering beggars, or old stragglers, as we were wont to call them, was an event of no ordinary interest in the generally monotonous quietude of our farm life. Many of them were well known — they had their periodical revolutions and transits; we could calculate them like eclipses or new moons. Some were sturdy knaves, fat and saucy; and whenever they ascertained that the men-folks were absent would order provisions and cider like men who expected to pay for them, seating themselves at the hearth or table with the air of Falstaff, “Shall I not take mine ease in mine own inn” Others poor, pale, patient, like Sterne’s monk, came creeping up to the door, hat in hand, standing there in their gray wretchedness, with a look of heart-break and forlornness which was never without its effect on our juvenile sensibilities. At times, however, we experienced a slight revulsion of feeling when even these humblest children of sorrow somewhat petulantly rejected our proffered bread and cheese, and demanded instead a glass of cider. One I think I see him now, grim, gaunt, and ghastly, working his way up to our door used to gather herbs by the wayside, and call himself doctor. He was bearded like a he-goat, and used to counterfeit lameness, yet when he supposed himself alone would travel on lustily, as if walking for a wager. At length, as if in punishment for his deceit, he met with an accident in his 2. “I have appointed Isaac Briggs of Maryland, surveyor of the lands south of the Tennessee. He is a Quaker, a sound republican, and of a pure and unspotted character. In point of science, in astronomy, geometry and mathematics, he stands in a line with Mr. Ellicott, and second to no man in the United States. He set out yesterday for his destination, and I recommend him to your particular patronage.” — President Thomas Jefferson. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
rambles, and became lame in earnest, hobbling ever after with difficulty on his gnarled crutches. Another used to go stooping, like Bunyan’s pilgrim, under a pack made of an old bed-sacking, stuffed out into most plethoric dimensions, tottering on a pair of small, meagre legs, and peering out with his wild, hairy face from under his burden, like a big-bodied spider. That man with the pack always inspired me with awe and reverence. Huge, almost sublime in its tense rotundity, the father of all packs, never laid aside and never opened, what might there not be within it! With what flesh-creeping curiosity I used to walk round about it at a safe distance, half expecting to see its striped covering stirred by the motions of a mysterious life, or that some evil monster would leap out of it, like robbers from Ali Baba’s jars, or armed men from the Trojan horse! Twice a year, usually in the spring and autumn, we were honored with a call from Jonathan Plummer, maker of verses, peddler and poet, physician and parson, — a Yankee troubadour, — first and last minstrel of the valley of the Merrimac, encircled, to my wondering young eyes, with the very nimbus of immortality. He brought with him pins, needles, tape, and cotton thread for my mother; jackknives, razors, and soap for my father; and verses of his own composing, coarsely printed and illustrated with rude woodcuts, for the delectation of the younger branches of the family. No love-sick youth could drown himself, no deserted maiden bewail the moon, no rogue mount the gallows, without fitting memorial in Plummer’s verses. Earthquakes, fires, fevers, and shipwrecks he regarded as personal favors from Providence, furnishing the raw material of song and ballad. Welcome to us in our country seclusion as Autolycus to the clown in Winter’s Tale, we listened with infinite satisfaction to his readings of his own verses, or to his ready improvisation upon some domestic incident or topic suggested by his auditors. When once fairly over the difficulties at the outset of a new subject, his rhymes flowed freely “as if he had eaten ballads and all men’s ears grew to his tunes.” His productions answered, as nearly as I can remember, to Shakespeare’s description of a proper ballad — “doleful matter merrily set down, or a very pleasant theme sung lamentably.” He was scrupulously conscientious, devout, inclined to theological disquisitions, and withal mighty in Scripture. He was thoroughly independent; flattered nobody, cared for nobody, trusted nobody. When invited to sit down at our dinner-table, he invariably took the precaution to place his basket of valuables between his legs for safe keeping. “Never mind thy basket, Jonathan,” said my father; “we shan’t steal thy verses.” “I ’m not sure of that,” returned the suspicious guest. “It is written, ‘Trust ye not in any brother.’”
Dr. John Aikin’s THE LIVES OF JOHN SELDEN, ESQ. AND ARCHBISHOP USHER; WITH NOTICES OF THE PRINCIPAL ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS WITH WHOM THEY WERE CONNECTED (London: Mathews and Leigh).
With the publication of his DISPOSITIO ALGARUM SUECIAE (TAXONOMY OF THE SWEDISH ALGAE), Carl Adolph Agardh was appointed professor of botany and practical economy at Lund University. His specialty was the algae (that is to say, he was a phycologist, his specialty was phycology). HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Oliver Evans –who had been, even before the turn of the century, successfully constructing steam engines of fairly high pressure, and who had in 1804 in Philadelphia constructed a steam dredge which could propel itself across ground surfaces upon wheels and across still water surfaces by powered paddles– at this point made a proposal for steam traction on a railway in the United States. Nothing would come of such a radical proposal at this time.
The song “Hey, Betty Martin” was the favorite marching song of the War of 1812.
David Cusick would serve on the side of the Americans during this war. His Iroquois village would be burned by the British.
US Army Chief of Engineers Joseph G. Swift, while planning the defense of Ogdensburg, New York, met the father of Charles Davies, who was a county Sheriff, and was sufficiently impressed with the proficiency of young Davies to help the family secure him an appointment to the West Point Military Academy of the US Army.
Just at this point, Lemuel Shattuck began a diary. The opening sentence of this diary is as follows: “This day 19 years ago I was born into this world a sinner possest of that principle which is opposed to God and his government; totally depraved in all my actions, desires and affections.”
A Swiss gunmaker named Samuel Pauly patented the 1st self-contained centerfire cartridges to use reusable metal bases. While the French military would ignore Pauly’s invention (it has been reported that Napoléon’s comment was that Pauly’s rifle was the worst weapon that could be put into the hands of a soldier), his design would influence the thinking of the German gunmaker Johann von Dreyse, whose needle-shaped-firing-pin weapons would in 1848 be adopted by the Prussian military.
Colonel John Stevens of Hoboken NJ issued a tract entitled “Documents Tending to Prove the Superior Advantages of Steam Railways and Steam Carriages over Canal Navigations.” He submitted that the cost of a new railroad would be only one quarter of the cost of a new canal. However, his idea of a railroad roadbed was that the rails be set up on posts several feet above the surface of the ground –so that they would be above the snows of the winter, and could cross small streams without the need for culverts or bridges– and that they be of pine with a surfacing of oak. Surfacing the pine stringers with iron straps seemed out of the question both due to the higher cost and due to the extremely large quantities of metal which would need to be smelted.
During this year or the following one, Andrews Norton was founding and editing an unsuccessful journal, the General Repository.
In England during this year or the following one, the idealistic young painter Samuel F.B. Morse was painting a “Dying Hercules.”
It would have been in about this year that Kaspar Hauser, mysterious child, would have been born somewhere in the vicinity of Nürnberg, Germany — to someone, under some circumstances known but to them. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
The women and children of the rural families of Franklin, Massachusetts were supplying enough braid of oat straw to enable the manufacture of 6,000 ladies’ bonnets per year. STRAW TOWNS
A new edition of Washington Irving’s A HISTORY OF NEW YORK, by “Diedrich Knickerbocker.”
READ THE FULL TEXT HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Sugar prices began to rise. To the delight of Napoléon Bonaparte, Benjamin Delessert managed to manufacture loaves of white sugar not from the slave-produced cane sugar of French tropical colonies such as Martinique and Guadeloupe but from beet sugar obtained from locally grown Beta vulgaris. You see, Napoleon was an opponent of enslavement (domination by the will of another) and a friend of enslavement (domination of others by one’s own will), and to have to rely on an external import produced by France’s black slaves which could be intercepted and denied by the British naval blockade represent his very real enslavement to the British.3
SWEETS WITHOUT SLAVERY
Baron Joseph-Marie de Gérando was appointed governor of the province of Catalonia at the border between
3. (Now you understand the late 20th-Century political phenomenon known as “The Libertarian Party.” It is the party which presents the argument of the 18th-Century and 19th-Century slavemaster, updated by the erasure of all reference to the issue of race.) With the removal of the threat of Napoleon this nascent sugar beet industry would collapse and would not begin to recover until the 1840s, despite the fact that by 1880 more sugar would be available from beets than from cane. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
France and Spain. This was a difficult period and life, as always, was cheap:
Nevertheless, upon the overthrow of the empire, his prudence and conciliation would be recognized as such and he would be allowed to remain in this position! (However, after being sent during the Hundred Days to organize defense in the department of the Moselle, at the beginning of the 2d Restoration he would be sidelined — only to then wend his way back into the council of state and again distinguish himself through prudence and conciliation.)
Germaine de Staël’s DE L’ALLEMAGNE was confiscated by Napoléon Bonaparte. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Prussia agreed to allow French troops free passage in case of war with Russia. In June, Napoléon Bonaparte invaded Russia with a “Grand Armée of Twenty Nations” of 550,000, then returned in defeat in the winter with no more than 100,000 escaping Russia and only some 20,000 managing eventually to return to their homes in France.4
François Pierre Guillaume Guizot translated Edward Gibbon’s THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, with additional notes. Louis-Marcelin de Fontanes, grand-master of the university of France, selected him to take the chair of modern history at the Sorbonne. He got married with Mme. Pauline de Meulan.
The USA had 50 steamships.
Robert Fulton’s steam ferryboat Jersey was put into service on New-York’s North and East Rivers.
In New-York, Robert Fulton exposed Redheffer’s perpetual motion machine.
4. Although it has been conventional to ascribe his defeat to an unexpectedly severe Russian winter, actually that winter was unexpectedly mild one. Some of the French fell of heat prostration and sunstroke during a persistent summer heat wave, some drowned during an attempt to ford a thawed river, and then many were carried away by a lice-borne infection. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Henry Bell’s steamboat The Comet went into operation on the Clyde River of Scotland.
In New-York, nine crew members of the ship Leopard sued the owners successfully for amounts ranging from $36.32 to $80.36.
The new New-York City Hall, begun in 1803, was completed.
In New-York, a fire in Chatham Street destroyed hundreds of houses. A sailor whose name is unknown to us clambered up the steeple of the Brick Church in order to put out flames on its roof.
The city of New-York was fortified. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Governor Elbridge Gerry was running for his third term as governor of Massachusetts, but had made himself somewhat unpopular among the electorate. Therefore the political insiders who represented his primary constituency rearranged some voting districts around Boston into an arbitrary district that had the shape of a salamander, in an attempt to manipulate the manner in which the votes were weighed and keep their man in office.
The painter Gilbert Stuart, shown an outline of this arbitrary district, added a head, claws, and wings to the outline of this “gerrymandered” voting district, to form what he termed a “salamander.” Stuart’s editor who elaborated this by changing the animal from a salamander to a “Gerrymander,” and the result was, Governor Elbridge Gerry was sent home by the electorate. Don’t cry for him, Argentina, because as always the faithful took care of the faithful: until his death in 1814 Gerry would serve as Vice President of the United States. And, Caleb Strong, who had been governor of Massachusetts from 1800 to 1807, would again serve as the governor of Massachusetts, from 1812 to 1816.
The 1st tin cans were produced in England, for preserving food.
John Walker built the 1st frame house in Canadice, New York.
Canal engineer James Geddes surveyed a route for a possible Chemung Canal, reporting to the New York canal commissioners.
The New York State canal commission was denied funds.
The British navy stored its prize vessels and captured US warships in the harbor of Skenesborough (Whitehall), New York for the coming winter.
A stone arsenal was built near Batavia, New York. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Hamilton College was founded in Clinton, New York and Gerrit Smith enrolled.
In Albany, New York, a Female Academy was established.
In London, the present Drury Lane Theatre was erected.
In London, work began on Regent’s Canal.
Friend Luke Howard moved to Tottenham near London, where there was a monthly meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. His family would live in a large house built by William Forster on the corner of what is now Philip Lane and Arnold Road East (7 Bruce Grove, not the same residence but a subsequent residence in Tottenham, is the one now marked with a historical plaque), a house with a garden in which he would set up his meteorological instruments. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
John Caldwell Calhoun of South Carolina and Henry Clay of Virginia persuaded the federal Congress to declare war upon Great Britain.
During this US/Britain dispute about territorial and shipping rights (and, it must be confessed, about whether the American Revolutionary War, which had ended merely with a truce, was already over, or not), William Guion Nell was a steward on board the General Gadsden.
Taking a stand in opposition to the war with England, which was crippling New England’s shipping trade and was therefore unpopular locally, Daniel Webster was elected to the US House of Representatives. After two more terms in the House, Webster would leave Congress in 1816 and move to Boston.
Amelia Island and other parts of east Florida were at this point Spanish possessions, but weakly held. Temporary occupation to deter piracy and to prevent occupation by any other power was authorized by President James Madison and by Congress. The occupation, however, would be effected by General George Matthews in so irregular a manner that his measures would have to be disavowed by the President.
There were 53 factories within 30 miles of Providence, 33 of them in Rhode Island and 20 in Massachusetts. READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
From this year into 1815, our “War of 1812” would be being transacted. Rhode Island would refuse to participate in any way. READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT
On June 18, 1812, the United States would declare that a state of war existed between the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Among the issues leading to the war had been British interception of neutral ships and blockades of the United States during British hostilities with France. US MILITARY INTERVENTIONS
Documents associated with this “War of 1812”: READ THE FULL TEXT
In the war, declared in 1812, Concord furnished several enlisted and several drafted soldiers. The Hon. John L. Tuttle, a Colonel till his death (he will be noticed among the professional men) and Frederick Hildreth, a lieutenant a short time, were the only commissioned officer in the regular service. Lieutenant Sullivan Burbank was stationed, as a recruiting officer, in the house [in Concord] now owned by the Honorable Samuel Hoar. The militia were called upon several times. The town voted, in May, 1812, to allow $3 each in addition to their wages, to all who should be detached under the United States law.5
5. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston MA: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy, 1835 (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry David Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study. On July 16, 1859 he would correct a date mistake buried in the body of the text.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Our Perennial Quest to Do Harm So Good Will Come
Extermination of the Pequot Tribe 1634-1637 “King Phillip’s” Race War 1675-1676 The War of 1812 1812-1815 The Revolution of the Texians 1835-1836 War on Mejico 1846-1848 The War for the Union 1862-1865 War to End War 1916-1919 Stopping Hitler 1940-1945 The Korean Police Action 1950-1953 Helping South Vietnam be Free 1959-1975 Cuban Missile Crisis 1962 HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
“Can history explain anything? Henry Adams, after a lifetime of writing about American history, wasn’t sure that it could. ‘Historians undertake to arrange sequences, –called stories, or histories– assuming in silence a relation of cause and effect,’ he wrote. But he suspected that the assumptions wouldn’t bear scrutiny, and he was haunted by the idea that hoping for a causal explanation of human affairs might be a mistake, ‘Chaos was the law of nature,’ he suggested late in life. ‘Order was the dream of man.’” Perhaps it was Adams’s penchant for historiographic nihilism that drew him to the War of 1812, the conflict with Britain that looms large over his masterpiece, the nine-volume “History of the United States During the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.” As a great evil, a war calls out for some kind of theodicy –for an explanation of why it happened and what it meant– but the War of 1812 frustrates the desire for such answers. Its origins lie in a concatenation of misperceptions, crossed signals, and false hopes. Its end is no less obscure: America, which started the war, accomplished none of its stated aims, and the peace treaty merely restored the combatants to the status quo before the fight. A number of historians feel that neither Britain nor America won — though most agree that the Indians, allies of Britain who never again seriously obstructed white America’s expansion, definitely lost. At the time, no one seemed to have more than a partial understanding of why they were fighting. A British government official compared the two countries to two men holding their heads in buckets of water, to see who would drown first. Adams wrote of the first winter of the war, “So complicated and so historical had the causes of war become that no one even in America could explain or understand them.” — Caleb Crain HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
We have a source of information as to the average stature of enlisted men in this period, in Ira Dye’s “Heights of Early American Seafarers” in BIOLOGICAL STANDARD OF LIVING ON THREE CONTINENTS, John Komlos (ed.), Westview, 1995, pages 95-104. The seamen who were taken prisoner during the War of 1812 averaged 5' 6.85'' inches, and that was a full inch and a half shorter than the soldiers of that period. Since the standard deviation was 2.5 inches, there would have been precious few enlisted men who reached an altitude of six feet, the height of Waldo Emerson and John F. Kennedy — and the POW sailor Richard “King Dick” Seaver must have been a real phenomenon. Table of Altitudes
Yoda 2 ' 0 '' Lavinia Warren 2 ' 8 '' Tom Thumb, Jr. 3 ' 4 '' Lucy (Australopithecus Afarensis) 3 ' 8 '' Hervé Villechaize (“Fantasy Island”) 3 ' 11'' Charles Proteus Steinmetz 4 ' 0 '' Mary Moody Emerson per FBS (1) 4 ' 3 '' Alexander Pope 4 ' 6 '' Benjamin Lay 4 ' 7 '' Gary Coleman (“Arnold Jackson”) 4 ' 8 '' Queen Victoria with osteoporosis 4 ' 8 '' Queen Victoria as adult 4 ' 10 '' Margaret Mitchell 4 ' 10 '' length of newer military musket 4 ' 10'' Charlotte Brontë 4 ' 10-11'' Harriet Beecher Stowe 4 ' 11'' Laura Ingalls Wilder 4 ' 11'' a rather tall adult Pygmy male 4 ' 11'' John Keats 5 ' 0 '' Clara Barton 5 ' 0 '' Isambard Kingdom Brunel 5 ' 0 '' Andrew Carnegie 5 ' 0 '' Thomas de Quincey 5 ' 0 '' Stephen A. Douglas 5 ' 0 '' Danny DeVito 5 ' 0 '' Immanuel Kant 5 ' 0 '' William Wilberforce 5 ' 0 '' Mae West 5 ' 0 '' Mother Teresa 5 ' 0 '' Deng Xiaoping 5 ' 0 '' Dred Scott 5 ' 0 '' (±) Captain William Bligh of HMS Bounty 5 ' 0 '' (±) Harriet Tubman 5 ' 0 '' (±) HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Mary Moody Emerson per FBS (2) 5 ' 0 '' (±) John Brown of Providence, Rhode Island 5 ' 0 '' (+) Bette Midler 5 ' 1 '' Jemmy Button 5 ' 2 '' Margaret Mead 5 ' 2 '' R. Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller 5 ' 2 '' Yuri Gagarin the astronaut 5 ' 2 '' William Walker 5 ' 2 '' Horatio Alger, Jr. 5 ' 2 '' length of older military musket 5 ' 2 '' 1 the artist formerly known as Prince 5 ' 2 /2'' 1 typical female of Thoreau's period 5 ' 2 /2'' Francis of Assisi 5 ' 3 '' Volt ai re 5 ' 3 '' Mohandas Gandhi 5 ' 3 '' Sammy Davis, Jr. 5 ' 3 '' Kahlil Gibran 5 ' 3 '' Friend Daniel Ricketson 5 ' 3 '' The Reverend Gilbert White 5 ' 3 '' Nikita Khrushchev 5 ' 3 '' Sammy Davis, Jr. 5 ' 3 '' Truman Capote 5 ' 3 '' Kim Jong Il (North Korea) 5 ' 3 '' Stephen A. “Little Giant” Douglas 5 ' 4 '' Francisco Franco 5 ' 4 '' President James Madison 5 ' 4 '' Iosef Vissarionovich Dzugashvili “Stalin” 5 ' 4 '' Alan Ladd 5 ' 4 '' Pablo Picasso 5 ' 4 '' Truman Capote 5 ' 4 '' Queen Elizabeth 5 ' 4 '' Ludwig van Beethoven 5 ' 4 '' Typical Homo Erectus 5 ' 4 '' 1 typical Neanderthal adult male 5 ' 4 /2'' 1 Alan Ladd 5 ' 4 /2'' comte de Buffon 5 ' 5 '' (-) Captain Nathaniel Gordon 5 ' 5 '' Charles Manson 5 ' 5 '' Audie Murphy 5 ' 5 '' Harry Houdini 5 ' 5 '' HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Hung Hsiu-ch'üan 5 ' 5 '' 1 Marilyn Monroe 5 ' 5 /2'' 1 T.E. Lawrence “of Arabia” 5 ' 5 /2'' average runaway male American slave 5 ' 5-6 '' Charles Dickens 5 ' 6? '' President Benjamin Harrison 5 ' 6 '' President Martin Van Buren 5 ' 6 '' James Smithson 5 ' 6 '' Louisa May Alcott 5 ' 6 '' 1 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 5 ' 6 /2'' 1 Napoleon Bonaparte 5 ' 6 /2'' Emily Brontë 5 ' 6-7 '' Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 5 ' ? '' average height, seaman of 1812 5 ' 6.85 '' Oliver Reed Smoot, Jr. 5 ' 7 '' minimum height, British soldier 5 ' 7 '' President John Adams 5 ' 7 '' President John Quincy Adams 5 ' 7 '' President William McKinley 5 ' 7 '' “Charley” Parkhurst (a female) 5 ' 7 '' Henry Thoreau 5 ' 7 '' 1 the average male of Thoreau's period 5 ' 7 /2 '' Edgar Allan Poe 5 ' 8 '' President Ulysses S. Grant 5 ' 8 '' President William H. Harrison 5 ' 8 '' President James Polk 5 ' 8 '' President Zachary Taylor 5 ' 8 '' average height, soldier of 1812 5 ' 8.35 '' 1 President Rutherford B. Hayes 5 ' 8 /2'' President Millard Fillmore 5 ' 9 '' President Harry S Truman 5 ' 9 '' 1 President Jimmy Carter 5 ' 9 /2'' 3 Herman Melville 5 ' 9 /4'' Calvin Coolidge 5 ' 10'' Andrew Johnson 5 ' 10'' Theodore Roosevelt 5 ' 10'' Thomas Paine 5 ' 10'' Franklin Pierce 5 ' 10'' Abby May Alcott 5 ' 10'' Reverend Henry C. Wright 5 ' 10'' HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
1 Nathaniel Hawthorne 5 ' 10 /2'' 1 Louis “Deerfoot” Bennett 5 ' 10 /2'' 1 Friend John Greenleaf Whittier 5 ' 10 /2'' 1 President Dwight D. Eisenhower 5 ' 10 /2'' Sojourner Truth 5 ' 11'' President Grover Cleveland 5 ' 11'' President Herbert Hoover 5 ' 11'' President Woodrow Wilson 5 ' 11'' President Jefferson Davis 5 ' 11'' 1 President Richard M. Nixon 5 ' 11 /2'' Robert Voorhis the hermit of Rhode Island < 6 ' Frederick Douglass 6 ' (-) Anthony Burns 6 ' 0 '' Waldo Emerson 6 ' 0 '' Joseph Smith, Jr. 6 ' 0 '' David Walker 6 ' 0 '' Sarah F. Wakefield 6 ' 0 '' Thomas Wentworth Higginson 6 ' 0 '' President James Buchanan 6 ' 0 '' President Gerald R. Ford 6 ' 0 '' President James Garfield 6 ' 0 '' President Warren Harding 6 ' 0 '' President John F. Kennedy 6 ' 0 '' President James Monroe 6 ' 0 '' President William H. Taft 6 ' 0 '' President John Tyler 6 ' 0 '' John Brown 6 ' 0 (+)'' President Andrew Jackson 6 ' 1'' Alfred Russel Wallace 6 ' 1'' President Ronald Reagan 6 ' 1'' 1 Venture Smith 6 ' 1 /2'' John Camel Heenan 6 ' 2 '' Crispus Attucks 6 ' 2 '' President Chester A. Arthur 6 ' 2 '' President George Bush, Senior 6 ' 2 '' President Franklin D. Roosevelt 6 ' 2 '' President George Washington 6 ' 2 '' HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Gabriel Prosser 6 ' 2 '' Dangerfield Newby 6 ' 2 '' Charles Augustus Lindbergh 6 ' 2 '' 1 President Bill Clinton 6 ' 2 /2'' 1 President Thomas Jefferson 6 ' 2 /2'' President Lyndon B. Johnson 6 ' 3 '' Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. 6 ' 3 '' 1 Richard “King Dick” Seaver 6 ' 3 /4'' President Abraham Lincoln 6 ' 4 '' Marion Morrison (AKA John Wayne) 6 ' 4 '' Elisha Reynolds Potter, Senior 6 ' 4 '' Thomas Cholmondeley 6 ' 4 '' (?) Franklin Benjamin Sanborn 6 ' 5 '' Peter the Great of Russia 6 ' 7 '' Giovanni Battista Belzoni 6 ' 7 '' Thomas Jefferson (the statue) 7 ' 6'' Jefferson Davis (the statue) 7 ' 7'' 1 Martin Van Buren Bates 7 ' 11 /2'' M. Bihin, a Belgian exhibited in Boston in 1840 8 ' Anna Haining Swan 8 ' 1''
At Providence, Rhode Island, Moffitt Mill, a wooden mill powered by a waterwheel (still in part to be seen), was being built on the Great Road along the Moshassuck River. “Hearthside,” residence of the mill’s owner Stephen Smith, was being built nearby, with notable columns and ogive end elevation. During this period the Butterfly Mill was also being built on this Great Road, and the Merino Mill was being built at 61 Ponaganset Avenue on the right bank of the Woonasquatucket River near Glenbridge. (This Merino Mill structure would burn in 1841.)
The Pawtucket Engine Company No. 2 of volunteer firemen was founded (the village of Pawtucket was then a part of the town of Seekonk, Massachusetts, which included the area that would eventually become East Providence, Rhode Island). The bylaws of this association required: Whenever fire is cryed each member shall repair immediately to the place where the Engine is kept and assist in collecting the apparatus and convey the Engine to the fire, and after the fire is extinguished every member of the Company shall return with the Engine to the place where it is kept, and assist in putting it up in its place in proper order, on failure Thereof to pay a fine of fifty cents.
In Pawtucket, Rhode Island, Mayo Greenleaf Patch abandoned his wife and children. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
At the age of 14, John Warner Barber became the sole support of his family of origin on their farm near East Windsor, Connecticut. Throughout the War of 1812 the 28 brass cannon of the battery at the tip of
EAST WINDSOR, CONN.
Manhattan Island6 would stand charged with powder and shot and ready to repel at a moment’s notice anyone attacking — if they happened to be attacking from the general direction of the cannon’s target “hulk moored in the river.” Your tax dollars at work, keeping you safe from fear.
Documents associated with the “War of 1812”: READ THE FULL TEXT
6. In 1815 this south-west battery would be renamed Castle Clinton. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
At the age of 25, an apothecary, Thomas Say as a self-taught naturalist became a charter member of the newly forming Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Living frugally in the Academy building, Say would care for its museum and become a friend of William Maclure (1763-1840), President of the Academy from 1817 to 1840.
THE SCIENCE OF 1812
The “Colossus” bridge, the longest timber span in the USA at 340 feet, was constructed by Lewis Wernwag. This flammable span would cross the Schuykill at Philadelphia until it burned in 1838, and in 1842 would be replaced with an inflammable (!) iron-cable suspension bridge, the Fairmount bridge.
Father Francis Xavier Brosius came from Philadelphia, to teach in Boston beginning in the fall. In a few years he would be residing in Cambridge and tutoring Harvard College students in mathematics. He would earn $10 per quarter per student. CATHOLICS
There was a battle between whites and the Miami tribe in the Indiana territory, a battle which is now celebrated annually in Wabash.
When King Jerome Bonaparte of Westphalia closed the convent at which she was living, Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich took refuge in a poor widow’s house. CATHOLICISM HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
George Combe hung out his shingle as a lawyer in Edinburgh.
Drs. Franz Joseph Gall and Johann Gaspar Spurzheim parted company forever. You turn left and I’ll turn right. PHRENOLOGY
In Buenos Aires, a revolutionary junta was explaining to black slaves who had supported its coup that it would not be offering to them their “longed-for liberty” from enslavement, or at least would not be able to offer this “right away, as humanity and reason would wish.” The junta spelled out the reason for this, that to simply decree slaves to be freemen would “unfortunately” fly in the face of “the sacred right of individual liberty” which guaranteed the stability and decency of human society. Now, if you were to ask yourself the question, what sort of “sacred right of individual liberty” it is which “stands in opposition” to a slave’s desire to be a freeman — the answer would gradually come to you, and would help you immeasurably in your thinking on this difficult topic. It was the same in South America during the 19th Century as in North America. The sacred right of individual liberty safeguarded, most of all, slaveholders in their property rights in other human beings. Since property rights are essential to human freedom, human freedom being quite impossible in a condition of bellum omnium contra omnes, slaves simply cannot be freed unless funds can become available to pay just and equitable compensation to their masters. Since we are speaking here of property rights, it is fair to mention that in this year in Baltimore was being 7 published the edition of Alexander Pope’s translation of Homer’s ILIAD which Henry Thoreau would take to his shanty on Walden Pond in 1845, which would be stolen there from his table one day while he was absent.
(More than a century later, this copy would turn up in the possession of the family of the woodchopper, Alek
7. Homer. THE ILIAD OF HOMER, TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK BY ALEXANDER POPE, IN TWO VOLUMES (Baltimore: Published by Philip H. Nicklin, Fielding Lucas, Jun. and Samuel Jeffries; also New York: M.&W. Ward, 1812). HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Therien — and would then again disappear:
WALDEN: I was never molested by any person but those who PEOPLE OF represented the state. I had no lock nor bolt but for the desk WALDEN which held my papers, not even a nail to put over my latch or windows. I never fastened my door night or day, though I was to be absent several days; not even when the next fall I spent a fortnight in the woods of Maine. And yet my house was more respected than if it had been surrounded by a file of soldiers. The tired rambler could rest and warm himself by my fire, the literary amuse himself with the few books on my table, or the curious, by opening my closet door, see what was left of my dinner, and what prospect I had of a supper. Yet, though many people of every class came this way to the pond, I suffered no serious inconvenience from these sources, and I never missed any thing but one small book, a volume of Homer, which perhaps was improperly gilded and this I trust a soldier of our camp has found by this time. I am convinced, that if all men were to live as simply as I then did, thieving and robbery would be unknown. These take place only in communities where some have got more than is sufficient while others have not enough. The Pope’s Homers would soon get properly distributed.– “Nec bella fuerunt, Faginus astabat dum scyphus ante dapes.” “Nor wars did men molest, When only beechen bowls were in request.” “You who govern public affairs, what need have you to employ punishments? Love virtue, and the people will be virtuous. The virtues of a superior man are like the wind; the virtues of a common man are like the grass; the grass, when the wind passes over it, bends.”
ALEXANDER POPE ALBIUS TIBULLUS ALEK THERIEN LYGDAMUS CONFUCIUS MENCIUS HOMER This unseemly incident gave Thoreau an opportunity to refer to a peculiar attitude toward ownership, above, which he found in his Eastern texts. A soldier had lost a buckler, and had obtained solace from the idea that although he had lost it, undoubtedly some other soldier of his encampment had found it — and thus it was not truly lost for it was still in use. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
In London, Dr. Robert John Thornton published his TEMPLE OF FLORA, OR GARDEN OF THE BOTANIST, POET, PAINTER, AND PHILOSOPHER:
BOTANIZING HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Thomas Rowlandson’s “Lonesome Pleasures” was drawn in this year:
In this year Dr. Benjamin Rush alleged in his MEDICAL INQUIRIES AND OBSERVATIONS UPON THE DISEASES OF THE MIND (Philadelphia; Published by Kimber & Richardson, No. 237, Market Street. Merritt, Printer, No. 9, Watkin’s Alley), the 1st psychiatric textbook printed in the US, that masturbation caused insanity: Onanism produces seminal weakness, impotence, dysury, tabes dorsalis, pulmonary consumption, dyspepsia, dimness of sight, vertigo, epilepsy, hypochondriasis, loss of memory, manalgia, fatuity, and death.8
“For 2400 years patients have believed that doctors were doing them good; for 2300 years they were wrong.”
— David Wootton, BAD MEDICINE: DOCTORS DOING HARM SINCE HIPPOCRATES, Oxford, June 2006
Belknap, Jeremy. THE HISTORY OF NEW-HAMPSHIRE. (Dover edition of 1812; reprinted NY: Johnson Reprints, 1970)
8. Well, it makes sense after all, because people in insane asylums have no privacy and no sexual access and thus the attendants, and visitors, can watch them as they masturbate. They masturbate, they are insane, therefore their masturbation caused their insanity. (By the same logic of inevitability, of course, masturbation can be seen as a cause of criminal incarceration.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Fanny Burney was 50. The lump in her right breast, that had become to be apparent the previous summer, had by this point become so painful that she could hardly make use of her arm. Dr. Dubois, a physician to the Empress Josephine, told her she would die unless the lump were surgically removed. The operation was to be performed at home, and permission was obtained from the local police to scatter straw on the road outside to mute the noise of carriages during the period of “danger and fever to the invalid.” Fanny signed a formal permission document required by the surgeon, Baron Larrey, and was told to provide a supply of towels and await his arrival at 1 PM. Months after the operation, Fanny would describe it to her sister Hetty. Nobody had showed up at 1 PM, but then at 3 PM four carriages arrived with seven men in black. They insisted that her maid and her newly engaged nurses leave the room and required Fanny to drink a “wine cordial.” Ignoring the armchair that had been prepared, they moved the bedstead to the center of the room. Astonished I turned to Dr Larry (the surgeon), who had promised that an armchair would suffice; but he hung his head and would not look at me. Two old mattresses M. Dubois then demanded and an old sheet. I now began to tremble violently, more with distaste and horror of the preparation even then of the pain. These arranged to his liking, he desired me to mount the Bed stead. I stood suspended for a moment, whether I should not abruptly escape - I looked at the door, the windows - I felt desperate.... To calm his patient, Dr. Dubois allowed one of the nurses to remain in the room. Fanny was induced to remove her robe de chambre: I mounted therefore, unbidden, the Bed stead — & M. Dubois placed me upon the mattress, & spread a cambric handkerchief upon my face. It was transparent, however, & I saw through it, that the Bed stead was instantly surrounded by the 7 men and my nurse. I refused to be held; but when, Bright through the cambric, I saw the glitter of polished steel — I closed my eyes. I would not trust to convulsive fear the sight of that terrible incision... When the surgeon drew a cross and a circle on the breast, Fanny realized that his intention was to ...take off the WHOLE. Excited by this idea I started up and threw off my veil ... & explained the nature of my sufferings.... I was heard attentively but in utter silence, and M. Dubois then replaced me as before and spread my veil over my face.... Hopeless then, desperate, & self-given up, I closed once more my eyes, relinquishing all watching, all resistance, all interference... Yet — when that dreadful steel was plunged into the breast — cutting through veins — arteries — flesh — nerves — I needed no injunctions not to restrain my cries. I began a scream that lasted unintermittingly during the whole time of the incision — & I almost marvel that it rings not in my Ears still — So excruciating was the agony... When the wound was made, & the instrument was withdrawn, the pain seemed undiminished, for the air that suddenly rushed into those delicate parts felt like a mass of minute but sharp & forked poinards, that were tearing the edges of the wound but when again I felt the instrument — describing a curve — cutting against the grain, if I may so say, while the flesh resisted in a manner so forcible as to oppose and tire the hand of the operator, who was forced to change from the right to the left — then indeed I thought I must have HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
expired. I attempted no more to open my eyes which remained hermetically shut.... I concluded that the operation was over — Oh no! presently the terrible cutting was renewed — & worse than ever, to separate the bottom, the foundation of this dreadful gland from the parts to which it adhered. Again all description would be baffled — yet again it was not over. Dr Larry rested but his own hand, & — Oh heaven — I then felt the knife rackling against the breast bone, scraping it. This performed while I yet remained in utterly speechless torture.... 1 The operation required 17 /2 minutes. Fanny fainted twice. When she was lifted from the bed she was conscious: I saw my good Dr Larry, pale nearly as myself, his face streaked with blood, & its expression depicting grief, apprehension, and almost horrour.... That night there was fever and vomiting. Fanny suffered “violent spasm” and took “des potions calmantes anti- spasmodique.” The following morning Dr. Larry returned to discover that the fever had departed, and by the evening Fanny was able to take a little chicken broth. She had survived mastectomy.
Later that year the D’Arblay family returned from France to England.
Lucretia Mott gave birth to her first child.
John O’Mic was hanged in the Cleveland Public Square for murdering two fur trappers. A bill against the Luddites proposed capital punishment for frame-breaking. George Gordon, Lord Byron’s maiden speech in the House of Lords would be in opposition to such barbarity. COLDBLOODED MURDER WOMEN9 HANGED IN ENGLAND DURING 1812
Date Name Place of execution Crime
23/03 Elizabeth Smith Ipswich Murder of daughter
13/06 Hannah Smith Lancaster Castle Riot
12/08 Catherine Foster Newgate Making false oath
9. Please understand that I am limiting myself to the hanging of women and girls in England not because it is more of an atrocity to hang a person who has a vagina than a person who has a penis, and not because what goes on in England is super relevant, but because this defined subset of the available data can be used to indicate the nature of that superset of data — and because if I were to consider as well all of the hundreds of men and boys who were suffering this fate, my page would become unreadable. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
George Gordon, Lord Byron’s CHILDE HAROLD’S PILGRIMAGE, Cantos I and II.
In this timeframe the Lord was making desperate efforts to sell off the ruin of Newstead Abbey to obtain living expenses.
Four Approaches to the Writer’s Estate
Approach “Old Money” “New Money” “Sweat Equity” “Just Enough Money”
Writer Lord Byron Sir Walter Scott Henry Thoreau Virginia Wolff
Estate Newstead Abbey Abbotsford Walden Pond A Room of One’s Own
Results Bailout Insolvency Immortality Feminism
Louis Braille, age 3, lost his eyesight. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Francis Cabot Lowell came back from England with memorized stolen plans of English cotton-spinning technology, to join with his brother-in-law in the creation of the Boston Manufacturing Company funded with $400,000.00 in investment capital (that’d be the equivalent of about M$40 today). The USA was in precisely the phase in which Japan would find itself a century and a half later, the phase of imitation. When convenient, England was the enemy against whom one could do no wrong. However, at the same time New England in general was refusing support for the war against the old country. Of the $11,000,000.00 war loan (B$1.1) secured by the national government of the United States of America in that year, only $1,000,000.00 had been obtained from all of New England.
Ashbel Green was installed as the 8th president of the College of New-Jersey. PRINCETON UNIVERSITY HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
John Lauris Blake received an AB degree at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Henry Cogswell Knight, graduating from Brown University, described Rhode Island. HENRY COGSWELL KNIGHT
The National Light and Heat Company was founded. The first coal-gas street lighting would begin two years later. WILLIAM MURDOCK
David Melville was in this year lighting his home in Newport, and the street itself, and his factory in Pawtucket, by means of coal gas. This was attracting considerable attention.
FIRE
Catsup began at this point to make its transition into what it is at present, a sweet, tomato syrup applied to meats. Previously, catsup had been made from anchovies, shallots, vinegar, wine, cloves, ginger, mace, nutmegs, peppercorns, and lemon peel. In this year a recipe recommended the addition of “love apples” to the concoction. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
During what would come to be known as the War of 1812, John Percival, well known as “Mad Jack” or “Roaring Jack,” would score many really audacious triumphs.
Lewis Cass would serve as a brigadier general, in particular at the “Battle of the Thames.”
Nathaniel Hawthorne would allege, in his campaign bio supporting his ol’ buddy General Franklin Pierce for President of the United States of America in the election of 1852, that at this point Pierce’s father had become garrulous in his dotage — such eagerness to chat up the neighbors about politics evidently here considered an important ingredient in the father of a potential American president, as it brings out the best in one’s children: At the commencement of the War of 1812, Franklin Pierce was a few months under eight years of age. The old general [General Benjamin Pierce], his father, sent two of his sons into the army; and, as his eldest daughter was soon afterwards married to Major McNeil, there were few families that had so large a personal stake in the war as that of General Benjamin Pierce. He himself, both in his public capacity as a member of the council, and by his great local influence in his own county, lent a strenuous support to the national administration. It is attributable to his sagacity and energy, that New Hampshire —then under a federal governor— was saved the disgrace of participation in the questionable, if not treasonable, projects of the Hartford Convention. He identified himself with the cause of the country, and was doubtless as thoroughly alive with patriotic zeal, at this eventful period, as in the old days of Bunker Hill, and Saratoga, and Yorktown. The general not only took a prominent part at all public meetings, but was ever ready for the informal discussion of political affairs at all places of casual resort, where —in accordance with the custom of the time and country— the minds of men were made to operate effectually upon each other. Franklin Pierce was a frequent auditor of these controversies. The intentness with which he watched the old general, and listened to his arguments, is still remembered; and, at this day, in his most earnest moods, there are gesticulations and movements that bring up the image of his father to those who recollect the latter on those occasions of the display of homely, native eloquence. No mode of education could be conceived, better adapted to imbue a youth with the principles and sentiment of democratic institutions; it brought him into the most familiar contact with the popular mind, and made his own mind a part of it.
BAWTHORNE’S BIO OF PIERCE HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Mr. Job Gardner’s impression of the Dighton Rock:10
(Not everybody who looks at a Rorschach inkblot sees a dog bouncing on a pogo stick.)
10. Per Garrick Mallery’s “Picture-Writing of the American Indians” in TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY TO THE SECRETARY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1888-1889. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
“Dighton Rock is like the rocks you see along the highways, filled with graffiti,” says Jim Whitall. “It’s where everyone wanted to leave a message, and it’s the first stone in America that anyone paid any attention to. It was a bulletin-board for ancients, Native Americans, and colonials alike.” The rock with the mysterious hieroglyphs was moved to dry land a few years ago by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a building was built around it to preserve the inscriptions. Winter ice and constant submergence at high tide under the Taunton River began obliterating some of the older markings. Also, in case one of the great scholars who deciphered the stone over the past 300 plus years is right, it’s best to preserve what may be a most important piece of history. Even if the hodgepodge of scratches and scribblings can’t ever be deciphered, Dighton Rock is a unique rock of ages. Sam Morison said, “if the history of the Dighton Rock is nothing else, it is a remarkable demonstration of human credulity.” Right on, Sam! -Campbell Grant, ROCK ART OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN, 1967 HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
The Formation of Historical Societies
1791 Massachusetts Historical Society
1804 New-York Historical Society
1812 American Antiquarian Society
1820s Maine and Rhode Island Historical Societies
1830s Virginia, Vermont, Connecticut, and Georgia Historical Societies
1840s Maryland Historical Society
1845 New Jersey Historical Society
1849 Minnesota Historical Society
1850s South Carolina Historical Society
1859 Historical Society of the Territory of New Mexico
“The chief practical use of history is to deliver us from plausible historical analogies.” — James Bryce, 1888
Here is what Henry Thoreau would make of this historical-society phenomenon:
A WEEK: Strictly speaking, the historical societies have not recovered one fact from oblivion, but are themselves, instead of the fact, that is lost. The researcher is more memorable than the researched. The crowd stood admiring the mist and the dim outlines of the trees seen through it, when one of their number advanced to explore the phenomenon, and with fresh admiration all eyes were turned on his dimly retreating figure. It is astonishing with how little co-operation of the societies the past is remembered. Its story has indeed had another muse than has been assigned it. There is a good instance of the manner in which all history began, in Alw kidis’ [??] Arabian Chronicle: “I was informed by Ahmed Almatin Aljorhami, who had it from Repha Ebn Kais Al miri [??], who had it from Saiph Ebn Fabalah Alchtquarmi, who had it from Thabet Ebn Alkamah, who said he was present at the action.” These fathers of history were not anxious to preserve, but to learn the fact; and hence it was not forgotten. Critical acumen is exerted in vain to uncover the past; the past cannot be presented; we cannot know what we are not. But one veil hangs over past, present, and future, and it is the province of the historian to find out, not what was, but what is. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Henry Ware, Jr. graduated from Harvard College.
Ongoing White Exploration and Expropriation of the American “Wilderness”:
In this year Isabella (Sojourner Truth) would have been approximately 15 years old. “It is simply crazy that there should ever have come into being a world with such a sin in it, in which a man is set apart because of his color — the superficial fact about a human being. Who could want such a world? For an American fighting for his love of country, that the last hope of earth should from its beginning have swallowed slavery, is an irony so withering, a justice so intimate in its rebuke of pride, as to measure only with God.” — Stanley Cavell, MUST WE MEAN WHAT WE SAY? 1976, page 141 HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Mounting commercial disappointments caused the family of John James Audubon to return to Pennsylvania.
Franklin Benjamin Sanborn would record an autobiographical fragment written by John Brown in 1859 about how, in about this year at the age of 12, he had traveled through the Michigan wilderness to deliver a herd of cattle. He had been disgusted with what he heard of the War of 1812, and for many years refused militia duty and paid instead the fine. He made himself familiar with every portion of the BIBLE. He never danced, and never knew one card from another. He lodged with a man who owned a boy slave. Brown was treated well, but the slave was beaten before his eyes with a metal fire shovel, and seeing this boy so ill-treated made him into “a most determined abolitionist” and led him “to declare, or swear, eternal war with slavery.”
An incident of his boyhood may explain, in some measure, the intense abhorrence he felt to slavery. He had for some reason been sent into the States of Kentucky, where he made the acquaintance of a slave boy, about his own age, of whom he became very fond. For some petty offense this boy was one day subjected to a brutal beating. The blows were dealt with an iron shovel and fell fast and furiously upon his slender body. Born in a free State and unaccustomed to such revolted at the shocking spectacle and at that early age he swore eternal hatred to slavery. After years never obliterated the impression, and he found in this early experience an argument against contempt for small things. It is true that the boy is the father of the man. From the acorn comes the oak. The impression of a horse’s foot in the sand suggested the art of printing. The fall of an apple intimated the law of gravitation. A word dropped in the woods of Vincennes, by royal hunters, gave Europe and the world a “William the Silent,” and a thirty years’ war. The beating of a Hebrew bondsman, by an Egyptian, created a Moses, and the infliction of a similar outrage on a helpless slave boy in our own land may have caused, forty years afterwards, a John Brown and Harpers Ferry Raid.
The “Elgin Marbles” were brought to England.
The mound at Hisarlik near the Bosphorus was identified by some scholars as the site of Homer’s Troy.11
The ruins of Carthage were identified on the north coast of Africa.
Felicia Browne’s THE DOMESTIC AFFECTIONS, which probed the rigors of a domestic poetics in the context of world war. FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS
Duncan Ban MacIntyre died.
11. As it would turn out eventually, they so identified it correctly — but at that time they could only have been more or less guessing. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Sarah Siddons retired.
The brothers Grimm’s FAIRY TALES.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s REMORSE was published and performed. The author made an unsuccessful visit to the Lake Country to reconcile with William Wordsworth. He continued to lecture on Shakespeare. Half his life annuity of £150 per year from the fortune of the Wedgewood brothers was withdrawn.
Thomas De Quincey was griefstricken at the death of Wordsworth’s 3-year-old, Catherine. He briefly enrolled at the Middle Temple with the intent of reading for the Bar.
William Blake’s “heroic watercolor” PHILOCTETES AND NEOPTOLEMOS ON LEMNOS; at the Associated Painters exhibit, Blake was able to present specimens of his JERUSALEM.
Maria Edgeworth’s THE ABSENTEE (the last volume in the series TALES OF FASHIONABLE LIFE).
Walter Savage Landor’s COUNT JULIAN: A TRAGEDY based on Julian, count of Ceuta. Robert Southey undertook to arrange publication and after an initial refusal by Longman’s obtained publication in London by Murray. Also, Landor’s COMMENTARY ON MEMOIRS OF MR. FOX (London: Murray). Before embarking for Spain Landor had been looking for a property, and had settled on Llanthony Priory in Monmouthshire, a ruined Benedictine abbey. He offered for sale the property he had inherited from his father at Rugeley, and persuaded his mother to sell her Tachbrook estate to complete the purchase cost. On his return from Spain he had made himself busy finalizing these matters. The previous owner of the abbey parcel had erected some buildings among the ruins, and an Act the Parliament had passed in 1809 enabled Landor to pull down those structures and begin to construct a house (which he would never complete). He wanted to make of himself a model country gentleman — planting trees, importing sheep from Spain, improving the roads, that sort of thing. But this was not to be. Eventually he would have no alternative but to abandon the property to his creditors (primarily, fortunately, to his mother).
James Ellsworth De Kay left Yale College without a degree.
After an apprenticeship to a printer, Leonard Withington entered Yale as a sophomore.
Tennant’s ANSTER FAIR.
Wilson’s ISLE OF PALMS AND OTHER POEMS.
Volume III of Joanna Baillie’s PLAYS ON THE PASSIONS.
George Crabbe’s TALES IN VERSE. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812 HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
The formula “Entities should not be multiplied...” which had been created by John Ponce of Cork in 1639 was, in Tennemann’s GRUNDRISS DER GESCHICHTE DER PHILOSOPHIE, improperly carried forward, so that later it could make its way into Ueberweg’s HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY. The descriptive term now used for this principle, “Occam’s Razor,” would apparently be a coinage occurring in 1836-1837 by Sir William Hamilton, the scholar who would also be responsible for changing the label “Law of Frugality” into “Law of Parcimony” (spelled thus).
Davy’s ELEMENTS OF CHEMICAL PHILOSOPHY.
A registry of slaves was begun in Trinidad.
According to a document that happens to have survived the ravages of time, Nicholas Peck (1762-1847) of Bristol, Rhode Island instructed a ship captain to trade for slaves at the mouth of the Gallinus River, at Cape Mount, and along the Gold Coast of Africa, and then convey the people he had purchased to Trinidad for sale there. (According to a letter from George F. Usher to Nicholas Peck dated January 31, 1821, a “smuggled cargo” had just been put ashore in Martinique, and this cargo being referred to might very well have been illicit new slaves from Africa — even as late as 1821 that sordid business was still going on, we know, and even as late as 1821, some Rhode Islanders still had their hands dirty!) INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
The Presbyterian General Council began to predict that “our nation” might begin to suffer “divine displeasure” — on account of the outrageous insult to the dignity of The Deity, that US post offices were being required to be open for business for at least an hour on a day of worship when no-one should be doing anything at all other than worshiping God.
A brother of Abraham Lincoln, Thomas, was born but would die in infancy.
Charlotte Darkey Parkhurst (“Charley” Parkhurst) was born in New Hampshire. After being raised as an orphan, she would run away to Worcester by posing as a boy, and would then for the rest of her life work with horses while passing herself off as a man, “Charley” Parkhurst.
Birth of Ebenezer Elliott’s and Fannie Gartside Elliot’s 4th child, William Elliott.
Henry Wilson was born.
Benjamin Wellington of Lexington, who had fought in the Revolution, died. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
At some date during the “War of 1812,” during the blockade of the port of Boston by the British fleet, the USS Constitution was gotten out of Boston Harbor by way of Pudding Gut between Deer Island and Point Shirley. The USS Constitution was, like HMS Victory, destined not to become a mere prison hulk.
The fighting Temaire of the grand sea battle of Trafalgar, long since stripped first of her guns as a supply vessel, and then of her masts, at this point became a mere rotting prison hulk moored in a mudflat.
The Temaire had been the vessel behind Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson’s Victory in the line of battle at Trafalgar and J.M.W. Turner had painted this in his 1806 “The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizzen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory.” (Turner would paint an additional image, of the hulk being hauled its last 55 miles in the sunset, to the dismantling yards in 1838.)
Mr. Frederic Tudor senior deeded to his son Frederic Tudor the some 75 acres of the “Rockwood” estate at Nahant. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
At some other date during this war, when HMS Shannon engaged with the American frigate Chesapeake near Little Brewster Island, although the American captain, James Lawrence, had been wounded, and although the British ship had definitely won the engagement, the American captain issued the command which won him eternal acclaim as a patriot if not as a realist: “Don’t give up the ship!”
Little Brewster Island HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
The Baron Georges Jean-Léopold-Nicolas-Frédéric Cuvier’s RECHERCHES SUR LES OSSEMENTS FOSSILES DE QUADRUPÈDES correctly identified pterosaurs as flying reptiles. (His conclusions would of course for many years be largely ignored.)
PALEONTOLOGY
F. Jacob’s HISTOIRE NATURELLE DES SINGES displayed the fetus of a monkey side by side with the fetus of a human and maintained that the only dissimilarity was that the monkey lacked a soul. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
The young orphan of a poor carpenter, on the village Poor Relief, Mary Anning spent a good deal of her time searching for fossils in the sea cliffs near Lyme Regis in the coastal district of Dorset simply because they could be sold for small amounts of money. In this year, at the age of about 13, the “fossilist” who had been so diligent
and attentive as to recover the first complete skeleton of a prehistoric swimming reptile was enabled to hand along her find, to a local landowner for the sum of £23, whereupon the amazing shaped stone was taken to London and put on display in Piccadilly. Nothing like this 17-foot-long fossil animal had ever before been brought to the attention of the natural philosophers of England.
THE SCIENCE OF 1812
Since the word “dinosaur” hadn’t yet been coined, this would receive the name “Ichthyosaurus,” which means “sea lizard”:
DINOSAURIA PALEONTOLOGY BIOLOGY
By this point Boston had acceded to the desires of some of its black parents, and separated out an entirely black school, the Smith School on Belknap Street, so that within the sheltering walls of a segregate institution (equality not yet being enough of a real or potential possibility as to be so much as contemplated) the black pupils would not need daily to manage the trauma being caused by the abuse they were encountering from white pupils. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
In roughly this timeframe John White Webster and George Parkman studied under Professor John Collins Warren at the old Harvard Medical College on Mason Street in Boston (Dr. Webster would murder Dr. Parkman, and be hanged). HARVARD COLLEGE
Because he was a Quaker pacifist who had tried to remain positively oriented during the Revolution, and because he practiced small pox vaccination, Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse was dismissed from this medical faculty. THE QUAKER PEACE TESTIMONY
An attitude toward Quakers in the arts: “When poring over light and trifling publications, with which the present age abounds, or when using the pencil or needle merely to amuse, think whether your time might not be more profitably spent in reading the Scriptures, with other pious writings or useful publications.”12 RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
From this year into 1817, Alexander Chalmers would be issuing the 32 volumes of his GENERAL BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY, revising and expanding upon materials that had first appeared in 11 volumes in 1761.
12. Henry Hull’s ADDRESS TO THE YOUTH OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS, ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO ATTENDED YEARLY MEETING IN LONDON IN 1812 HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Henry Pickering had asked his friend Captain Heard to bring “a Sanskrit classic” back from India.
According to a letter from Waldo Emerson to Elizabeth Sherman Hoar, it appears that what the captain brought back home to Boston when he returned from Calcutta in his tall ship in this year was Charles Wilkins’s translation of THE BHAGVAT-GEETA OR DIALOGUES OF KREESHNA AND ARJOON (London: Nourse, 1785), HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
which was the first Sanskrit work to be rendered into any European language.13
In 1812, when Captain Heard was to sail for Calcutta, his friend Henry Pickering made a special request to fetch him a Sanskrit classic. Pickering is said to have received a copy of Wilkins’ translation of the BHAGVAD GITA. Again, the April issue of The Christian Register, a Boston Journal, testifies that a set of the copies of the Calcutta periodical, Hur Karu, was transported to America by a sailor. This periodical is said to have been received with great enthusiasm by those whose fascination for Indian literature was growing. ——————— Dhawan, R.K. HENRY DAVID THOREAU: A STUDY IN INDIAN INFLUENCE. New Delhi, India: Classical Publishing Company, 1985, page 11
BHAGVAT-GEETA
This indeed is the translation which both Waldo Emerson and Henry Thoreau would access, Thoreau only after he had left the Emerson home in 1844.
... read the Bhagvat-Geeta, an episode in the Mahabharat, said to have been written by Kreeshna Dwypayen Veias, ... more than four thousand years ago, ... translated by Charles Wilkins. It deserves to be read with reverence even by Yankees, as a part of the sacred writings of a devout people; and the intelligent Hebrew will rejoice to find in it a moral grandeur and sublimity akin to those in his own Scriptures.
TIMELINE OF A WEEK
13. The BHAGAVAD-GITA or “The Song of the Adorable Possessed of all Excellences” forms part of Book VI of the MAHABHARATA or “Great Epic of the Bharata Dynasty” and consists largely of a dialog between the prince Arjuna and his friendly chariot-driver Krishna who happens also to be an incarnation of the deity Vishnu, on the field of battle. The 700 stanzas of this poem date to the 1st or 2nd centuries of our common era. It is said to have been written by someone named Vyasa, but there is no information as to who this Vyasa was or when he lived. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
A WEEK: The New Testament is remarkable for its pure morality; PEOPLE OF the best of the Hindo Scripture, for its pure intellectuality. A WEEK The reader is nowhere raised into and sustained in a higher, purer, or rarer region of thought than in the Bhagvat-Geeta. Warren Hastings, in his sensible letter recommending the WARREN HASTINGS translation of this book to the Chairman of the East India Company, declares the original to be “of a sublimity of conception, reasoning, and diction almost unequalled,” and that the writings of the Indian philosophers “will survive when the British dominion in India shall have long ceased to exist, and when the sources which it once yielded of wealth and power are lost to remembrance.” It is unquestionably one of the noblest and most sacred scriptures which have come down to us. Books are to be distinguished by the grandeur of their topics, even more than by the manner in which they are treated. The Oriental philosophy approaches, easily, loftier themes than the modern aspires to; and no wonder if it sometimes prattle about them. It only assigns their due rank respectively to Action and Contemplation, or rather does full justice to the latter. Western philosophers have not conceived of the significance of Contemplation in their sense. Speaking of the spiritual discipline to which the Brahmans subjected themselves, and the wonderful power of abstraction to which they attained, instances of which had come under his notice, Hastings says: — “To those who have never been accustomed to the separation of the mind from the notices of the senses, it may not be easy to conceive by what means such a power is to be attained; since even the most studious men of our hemisphere will find it difficult so to restrain their attention, but that it will wander to some object of present sense or recollection; and even the buzzing of a fly will sometimes have the power to disturb it. But if we are told that there have been men who were successively, for ages past, in the daily habit of abstracted contemplation, begun in the earliest period of youth, and continued in many to the maturity of age, each adding some portion of knowledge to the store accumulated by his predecessors; it is not assuming too much to conclude, that as the mind ever gathers strength, like the body, by exercise, so in such an exercise it may in each have acquired the faculty to which they aspired, and [page 112] that their collective studies may have led them to the discovery of new tracks and combinations of sentiment, totally different from the doctrines with which the learned of other nations are acquainted; doctrines which, however speculative and subtle, still as they possess the advantage of being derived from a source so free from every adventitious mixture, may be equally founded in truth with the most simple of our own.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
A WEEK: Scholars are wont to sell their birthright for a mess of learning. But is it necessary to know what the speculator prints, or the thoughtless study, or the idle read, the literature of the Russians and the Chinese, or even French philosophy and much of German criticism. Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all. “There are the worshippers with offerings, and the worshippers with mortifications; and again the worshippers with enthusiastic devotion; so there are those the wisdom of whose reading is their worship, men of subdued passions and severe manners; — This world is not for him who doth not worship; and where, O Arjoon, is there another?” Certainly, we do not need to be soothed and entertained always like children. He who resorts to the easy novel, because he is languid, does no better than if he took a nap. The front aspect of great thoughts can only be enjoyed by those who stand on the side whence they arrive. Books, not which afford us a cowering enjoyment, but in which each thought is of unusual daring; such as an idle man cannot read, and a timid one would not be entertained by, which even make us dangerous to existing institutions, — such call I good books.
A WEEK: “Perform the settled functions,” says Kreeshna in the Bhagvat-Geeta; “action is preferable to inaction. The journey of thy mortal frame may not succeed from inaction.”
A WEEK: “A man’s own calling with all its faults, ought not to be forsaken. Every undertaking is involved in its faults as the fire in its smoke.”
A WEEK: “The man who is acquainted with the whole, should not drive those from their works who are slow of comprehension, and less experienced than himself.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
A WEEK: “Wherefore, O Arjoon, resolve to fight,” is the advice of the God to the irresolute soldier who fears to slay his best friends. It is a sublime conservatism; as wide as the world, and as unwearied as time; preserving the universe with Asiatic anxiety, in that state in which it appeared to their minds. These philosophers dwell on the inevitability and unchangeableness of laws, on the power of temperament and constitution, the three goon or qualities, and the circumstances of birth and affinity. The end is an immense consolation; eternal absorption in Brahma. Their speculations never venture beyond their own table-lands, though they are high and vast as they. Buoyancy, freedom, flexibility, variety, possibility, which also are qualities of the Unnamed, they deal not with. The undeserved reward is to be earned by an everlasting moral drudgery; the incalculable promise of the morrow is, as it were, weighed. And who will say that their conservatism has not been effectual? “Assuredly,” says a French translator, speaking of the antiquity and durability of the Chinese and Indian nations, and of the wisdom of their legislators, “there are there some vestiges of the eternal laws which govern the world.”
A WEEK: “The forsaking of works” was taught by Kreeshna to the most ancient of men, and handed down from age to age, “until at length, in the course of time, the mighty art was lost.
A WEEK: “In wisdom is to be found every work without exception,” says Kreeshna.
A WEEK: “Although thou wert the greatest of all offenders, thou shalt be able to cross the gulf of sin with the bark of wisdom.”
A WEEK: “There is not anything in this world to be compared with wisdom for purity.”
A WEEK: “The action stands at a distance inferior to the application of wisdom.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
A WEEK: The wisdom of a Moonee “is confirmed, when, like the tortoise, he can draw in all his members, and restrain them from their wonted purposes.”
A WEEK: “Children only, and not the learned, speak of the speculative and the practical doctrines as two. They are but one. For both obtain the selfsame end, and the place which is gained by the followers of the one is gained by the followers of the other.”
A WEEK: “The man enjoyeth not freedom from action, from the non- commencement of that which he hath to do; nor doth he obtain happiness from a total inactivity. No one ever resteth a moment inactive. Every man is involuntarily urged to act by those principles which are inherent in his nature. The man who restraineth his active faculties, and sitteth down with his mind attentive to the objects of his senses, is called one of an astrayed soul, and the practiser of deceit. So the man is praised, who, having subdued all his passions, performeth with his active faculties all the functions of life, unconcerned about the event.”
A WEEK: “Let the motive be in the deed and not in the event. Be not one whose motive for action is the hope of reward. Let not thy life be spent in inaction.”
A WEEK: “For the man who doeth that which he hath to do, without affection, obtaineth the Supreme.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
A WEEK: “He who may behold, as it were inaction in action, and action in inaction, is wise amongst mankind. He is a perfect performer of all duty.”
“Wise men call him a Pandeel, whose every undertaking is free from the idea of desire, and whose actions are consumed by the fire of wisdoms abandoneth the desire of a reward of his actions; he is always contented and independent; and although he may be engaged in a work, he, as it were, doeth nothing.”
A WEEK: “He is both a Yogee and a Sannyasee who performeth that which he hath to do independent of the fruit thereof; not he who liveth without the sacrificial fire and without action.”
A WEEK: “He who enjoyeth but the Amreeta which is left of his offerings, obtaineth the eternal spirit of Brahm, the Supreme.”
A WEEK: “I am the same to all mankind,” says Kreeshna; “there is not one who is worthy of my love or hatred.”
A WEEK: This teaching is not practical in the sense in which the New Testament is. It is not always sound sense in practice. The Brahman never proposes courageously to assault evil, but patiently to starve it out. His active faculties are paralyzed by the idea of cast, of impassable limits, of destiny and the tyranny of time. Kreeshna’s argument, it must be allowed, is defective. No sufficient reason is given why Arjoon should fight. Arjoon may be convinced, but the reader is not, for his judgment is not “formed upon the speculative doctrines of the Sankhya Sastra.”
A WEEK: “Seek an asylum in wisdom alone”; but what is wisdom to a Western mind? The duty of which he speaks is an arbitrary one. When was it established? The Brahman’s virtue consists in doing, not right, but arbitrary things. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
A WEEK: What is that which a man “hath to do”?
A WEEK: What is “action”?
A WEEK: What are the “settled functions”?
A WEEK: What is “a man’s own religion,” which is so much better than another’s?
A WEEK: What is “a man’s own particular calling”? What are the duties which are appointed by one’s birth?
A WEEK: It is a defence of the institution of casts, of what is called the “natural duty” of the Kshetree, or soldier, “to attach himself to the discipline,” “not to flee from the field,” and the like. But they who are unconcerned about the consequences of their actions are not therefore unconcerned about their actions. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
A WEEK: Behold the difference between the Oriental and the Occidental. The former has nothing to do in this world; the latter is full of activity. The one looks in the sun till his eyes are put out; the other follows him prone in his westward course. There is such a thing as caste, even in the West; but it is comparatively faint; it is conservatism here. It says, forsake not your calling, outrage no institution, use no violence, rend no bonds; the State is thy parent. Its virtue or manhood is wholly filial. There is a struggle between the Oriental and Occidental in every nation; some who would be forever contemplating the sun, and some who are hastening toward the sunset. The former class cays to the latter, When you have reached the sunset, you will be no nearer to the sun. To which the latter replies, But we so prolong the day. The former “walketh but in that night, when all things go to rest the night of time. The contemplative Moonee sleepeth but in the day of time, when all things wake.”
A WEEK: To conclude these extracts, I can say, in the words of Sanjay, “As, O mighty Prince! I recollect again and again this holy and wonderful dialogue of Kreeshna and Arjoon, I continue more and more to rejoice; and as I recall to my memory the more than miraculous form of Haree, my astonishment is great, and I marvel and rejoice again and again! Wherever Kreeshna the God of devotion may be, wherever Arjoon the mighty bowman may be, there too, without doubt, are fortune, riches, victory, and good conduct. This is my firm belief.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
The Baron Georges Jean-Léopold-Nicolas-Frédéric Cuvier’s RECHERCHES SUR LES OSSEMENTS FOSSILES DE QUADRUPÈDES correctly identified pterosaurs as flying reptiles. (His conclusions would of course for many years be largely ignored.)
PALEONTOLOGY HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Doctor George Parkman toured mental asylums in France and Italy, winding up his tour with Bedlam in England.
Our of this would come his REMARKS ON INSANITY and THE MANAGEMENT OF LUNATICS.
Joel Barlow died.
Learning of a sneak attack that was pending against the white settlement of Mansfield in Ohio, Johnny Appleseed found his way at night through 36 miles of forest to summon the occupants of Mt. Vernon — so that this violence might be forestalled.
Fort Meigs was constructed, to protect Ohio from being invaded by Canada. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
It was learned that when the white explorers had reached the rapids of the Niger River near Bussa (presently in Nigeria), about 1,000 miles below Sansanding, they had been attacked by tribesmen and Mungo Park had drowned.
WALDEN: What does Africa, –what does the West stand for? Is not our own interior white on the chart? black though it may prove, like the coast, PEOPLE OF when discovered. Is it the source of the Nile, or the Niger, or the WALDEN Mississippi, or a North-West Passage around this continent, that we would find? Are these the problems which most concern mankind? Is Franklin the only man who is lost, that his wife should be so earnest to find him? Does Mr. Grinnell know where he himself is? Be rather the Mungo Park, the Lewis and Clarke and Frobisher, of your own streams and oceans; explore your own higher latitudes, –with shiploads of preserved meats to support you, if they be necessary; and pile the empty cans sky-high for a sign. Were preserved meats invented to preserve meat merely? Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought. Every man is the lord of a realm beside which the earthly empire of the Czar is but a petty state, a hummock left by the ice. Yet some can be patriotic who have no self-respect, and sacrifice the greater to the less. They love the soil which makes their graves, but have no sympathy with the spirit which may still animate their clay. Patriotism is a maggot in their heads. What was the meaning of that South- Sea Exploring Expedition, with all its parade and expense, but an indirect recognition of the fact, that there are continents and seas in the moral world, to which every man is an isthmus or an inlet, yet unexplored by him, but that it is easier to sail many thousand miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with five hundred men and boys to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one’s being alone.– “Erret, et extremos alter scrutetur Iberos. Plus habet hic vitæ, plus habet ille viæ.” Let them wander and scrutinize the outlandish Australians. I have more of God, they more of the road.
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN DR. ELISHA KENT KANE MERIWETHER LEWIS WILLIAM CLARK MUNGO PARK HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Lydia Very (1794-1867), pregnant, and Captain Jones Very of the privateer Montgomery, her first cousin, set up an “irregular household” or common-law marriage in Salem MA. Here is an account of Lydia Very of 154 Federal Street, Salem MA, which Elizabeth Palmer Peabody created during the period in which people were most concerned for the mental stability of her son Jones Very:
She was a person of great energy — was said to have more than doubts of another world and of the existence of God — having had a severe experience of life, and being at odds with the existing state of Society — a disciple of Fanny Wright....
FANNY WRIGHT
Richard Henry Dana was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law in Sutton, Massachusetts.
Percy Bysshe Shelley was launching little silk hot-air balloons across the Bristol Channel into north Wales, bearing messages having to do with political rights and scientific progress.
BALLOONING HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
The United States of America took the opportunity when Britain was engaged in a war in Europe to declare war against that power — at a time also, when, from various circumstances, Canada was supposed to be in such a state as to be unable to resist a powerful invading army. The whole force then in Canada scarcely exceeded 4,000 men, and in consequence the Legislature was assembled to decide on the best measures to be pursued on the occasion. During the War of 1812, Joseph Bouchette would attain the rank of Lieutenant.
Government paper bearing interest was issued, battalions ordered home were detained, the militia drafted for active service, the garrisons placed in a state of defence, and in less than a month after the news of the declaration was made known, the lower province was prepared to meet the assailant. The first movement of the enemy was the army under General Hull crossing into Upper Canada in July, with his retreat to Detroit in August, after hearing of some reverses at Amherstburgh and Michimilimackinac. General Brock, the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, however, attacked Hull on the 16th August, and his whole force was marched captive into Montréal within two months after the breaking out of the war. The enemy by November collected a large additional force on the Niagara frontier. They crossed into Upper Canada at Queenston, where they were again defeated by General Brock, whose death followed the wounds he received in the engagement. In November the Americans under General Smyth invaded the country near Fort Erie, the British naval force made an attack on Sacket’s harbour, but neither were attended with any important result.
An expeditionary force of the United States of America raided York in Canada and burned the library of the Canadian parliament there. (York is now known as Toronto. We hear from time to time about an English army burning our US Library of Congress in 1814, but, strangely, it seems we almost never hear the whole story — that this book-burning done by the English may well have been in retaliation for our previous book-burning.)
Deputy Surveyor Robert McLean constructed what is believed to be the 1st theodolite built in Ontario. It had a horizontal circle 25 inches in diameter and could be read to half minutes by a vernier. It probably had open sights similar to a circumferentor. CARTOGRAPHY HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Professor Sylvestre François Lacroix was appointed chair of mathematics at the Collège de France. Babbage set up an Analytical Society for the translation of Professor Lacroix’s DIFFERENTIAL AND INTEGRAL CALCULUS.
An inheritance gave Charles Fourier the opportunity to devote himself to social and economic theorization, and he wrote his TRAITÉ DE L’ASSOCIATION AGRICOLE DOMESTIQUE (“Treatise on Domestic Agricultural Association,” 1822) and LE NOUVEAU MONDE INDUSTRIEL (“The New Industrial World,” 1829-1830).
Concord postmaster John Leighton Tuttle resigned in order to accept an appointment as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the US Army, and Commandant of the 9th Regiment of Continental Infantry,14 with the result that John Shepard Keyes became postmaster.
For a year, Isaac Warren, hired from elsewhere, would be teaching Concord’s grammar students.
1785 Nathaniel Bridge 9 months 1812 Isaac Warren 1 year
1786 JOSEPH HUNT 2½ years 1813 JOHN BROWN 1 year
1788 William A. Barron 3 years 1814 Oliver Patten 1 year
1791 Amos Bancroft 1 year 1815 Stevens Everett 9 months
1792 Heber Chase 1 year 1815 Silas Holman 3 months
1793 WILLIAM JONES 1 year 1816 George F. Farley 1 year
1794 Samuel Thatcher 1 year 1817 James Howe 1 year
14. Tuttle would be murdered during a payroll robbery. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
1795 JAMES TEMPLE 2 years 1818 Samuel Barrett 1 year
1797 Thomas O. Selfridge 1 year 1819 BENJAMIN BARRETT 1 year
1798 THOMAS WHITING 4 years 1820 Abner Forbes 2 years
1802 Levi Frisbie 1 year 1822 Othniel Dinsmore 3 years
1803 Silas Warren 4 years 1825 James Furbish 1 year
1807 Wyman Richardson 1 year 1826 EDWARD JARVIS 1 year
1808 Ralph Sanger 1 year 1827 Horatio Wood 1 year
1809 Benjamin Willard 1 year 1828 David J. Merrill 1 year
1810 Elijah F. Paige 1 year 1829 John Graham 1 year
1811 Simeon Putnam 1 year 1831 John Brown
The town of Concord began to appoint a “Cow-Pock Committee.” John White and Benjamin Prescott were Concord’s deputies and representatives to the General Court.
John L. Tuttle of Concord was a Senator.
In Concord, Thomas Wheeler was a Selectman.
In Concord, Nathan Barrett was a Selectman.
In Concord, John Buttrick continued as Town Treasurer.
This was the condition of Concord’s economy:
EMPLOYMENT.— Agriculture is the greatest source of wealth to the town. Manufactures are next in rank. Three farmers in the town own about 1000 sheep, the value of whose wool was estimated, in 1831, at $1500. There were raised 884,000 teasles. The oldest cotton-mill now [1835] in this state was commenced in this town in 1805, and the manufacture of cotton soon after began by Messrs. Hartwell and Brown, and has since been carried on by Ephraim H. Bellows through the various fluctuations of the business. The proprietors were incorporated in 1832. The mill contained 1100 spindles, 20 looms, employs 9 men, 3 boys, and 30 girls, works 50,000 lbs. of cotton, and makes 188,000 yards of cloth annually, valued at $17,900. David Loring commenced the manufacture of lead pipes in 1819, and of sheet lead in 1831. He employs 6 men, and upwards of 300,000 lbs. of lead are annually wrought, valued, when ready for sale, at about 20,000. In the extensive establishments for the manufacture of chaises, harness, and carriages, owned by Colonel William Whiting and the Messrs. Robbins, the value of the articles manufactured last year was estimated at $14,000. The smithery, where the iron work was made, used upwards of 100,000 lbs. of iron, and 4,000 of steel, in 1831. Henry H. Merrill, the proprietor, erected, in 1832, a steam-engine, and has otherwise enlarged his works. Elijah Wood commenced the manufacture of boots and shoes in 1812 HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
and makes, annually, about $6,000 worth. Nehemiah Ball began the same business in 1832. From 3000 to 6000 gross black lead pencils and points are annually made in town. William Monroe commenced the manufacture of these in 1812; and his method of making them he regards as his own invention, having, he informs me, had no instruction from anyone in relation to the subject. “The lead for the first pencil was ground with the head of a hammer, was mixed in a common spoon, and the pencil sold to Benjamin Adams in Boston.” In 1814 he made 1212 gross, which he sold for $5,946. He has since made about 35,000 gross; in some years 4,000 gross of pencils, and 1,000 of points. John Thoreau and others in the town have also carried on the business extensively, but the profits are now [1835] very much reduced. Mr. Thoreau also makes red lead pencils and glass paper. There were also made, in 1831, 50 brass time-pieces, 1,300 hats, 562 dozen bellows, 100 guns, 300,000 bricks, 500 barrels, 20,000 lbs. bar soap, 5,000 nail- kegs, and cabinet ware, the value of which was estimated at $14,860. This is what is generally termed wholesale business, and includes very little custom work; the articles manufactured being principally sold abroad. There are 6 warehouses and stores; one bookstore and bindery; two saw-mills; and two grist- mills, at which it was estimated that 12,000 bushels of grain were ground the last year [1834?]. The manufacturing and mechanical business of the town is increasing, and promises to be a great source of wealth.15
15. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study. On July 16, 1859 he would correct a date mistake buried in the body of the text.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
In Carlisle, John Jacobs was chosen as a deacon by the church.
A bell was obtained for the church at Carlisle. It cost $350.
Representatives of Carlisle to the General court of Massachusetts:
Deacon Ephraim Robbins 1807-1808
Reverend Paul Litchfield 1808-1811
Captain Timothy Heald 1812-1813
Captain Thomas Heald 1815
Jonathan Heald, Jr., Esq. 1816
John Heald, Esq. 1818, 1821, 1823
Dr. John Nelson 1824
John Heald, Esq. 1826-1827, 1830
Representatives of Lincoln16
Chambers Russell ’54-57, ’59, ’62, ’63, ’5. Joshua Brooks 1809-1811.
Samuel Farrer 1766-1768. Leonard Hoar 1812-1814.
Eleazer Brooks ’74-’78, ’80, ’5, ’7, ’90-’2. William Hayden 1815, 1816.
Chambers Russell 1788. Elijah Fiske 1820-1822.
Samuel Hoar ’94, ’95, ’97, ’98, 1801, ’3-’8. Joel Smith 1824.
Samuel Farrar, Jr. 1800. Silas P. Tarbell 1827, 1828.
Not represented 1758, ’60, ’62, ’69-’73, ’79, ’81, ’82, ’86, ’89, ’93, ’96, ’99, 1802, ’17, ’23, ’25, ’26.
16. Ibid HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
The Scituate Harbor lighthouse keeper’s daughters Abigail and Rebecca Bates became known as the “army of two” because, when a British warship attempted to put a longboat ashore searching probably for provisions or fresh water, they had deceived the raider into thinking the American coastal militia was massing, through “playing a fife and drum” behind a sand dune.
The dour granite prison complex for French prisoners of war near the mist-enshrouded village of Princeton on the stark Devonshire moor was in the process of being enlarged. England was going to be at war not only with France but with that new union of its former American colonies. Wonder who they had chipping all that granite?
Russians build Fort Rossiia (Ross) 90 miles north of San Francisco, near Bodega Bay. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Major General Carl Phillip Gottfried von Clausewitz addressed an essay to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia at the end of the prince’s tutorials, which concluded with a section on the application of the mechanical concept of friction to the art of war. Later, while at the imperial war college, he would recycle this trope for his chapter “Friction in War” (“Die wichtigsten Grundsätze des Kriegführens ...” as Book I, “On the Nature of War,” Chapter 7), and for the recurrent theme of mechanical friction which runs through the entire analysis.
Of this work, when he died, 1,500 copies would be produced by his devoted widow in 1832, and it seems entirely plausible that Henry Thoreau’s analysis in “RESISTANCE TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT,” of the state as a heedless machine and the individual as friction to stop the machine, is indebted to this “well-known but little read” treatise. Here is the eventual analysis as currently translated from VOM KRIEGE: Everything in war is very simple, but the simplest thing is difficult. The difficulties accumulate and end by producing a kind of friction that is inconceivable unless one has experienced war.... Iron will-power can overcome this friction; it pulverizes every obstacle, but of course it wears down the machine as well.... Friction is the only concept that more or less corresponds to the factors that distinguish real war from war on paper. ...each part is composed of individuals, every one of whom retains his potential of friction.... Action in war is like movement in a resistant element.... The conduct of war resembles the workings of an intricate machine with tremendous friction, so that combinations which are easily planned on paper HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
can be executed only with great effort. Consequently the commander’s free will and intelligence find themselves hampered at every turn, and remarkable strength of mind and spirit are needed to overcome this resistance. Even then many good ideas are destroyed by friction, and we must carry out more simply and modestly what in more complicated form would have given greater results.
The difference between von Clausewitz’s militaristic use of the concept of mechanical friction and Thoreau’s pacifistic use can be clearly seen to be merely the difference between a spirit, von Clausewitz’s, which had devoted its essence to forcing the world to become a good place in which to live, and a spirit, Thoreau’s, which had devoted its essence simply to living in this world “be it good or bad”: All machines have their friction; and possibly this does enough good to counter-balance the evil. At any rate, it is a great evil to make a stir about it. But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer.... If the injustice is part of the necessary friction of the machine of government, let it go, let it go: perchance it will wear smooth— certainly the machine will wear out. If the injustice has a spring, or a pulley, or a rope, or a crank, exclusively for itself, then perhaps you may consider whether the remedy will not be worse than the evil; but if it is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine. What I have to do is to see, at any rate, that I do not lend myself to the wrong which I condemn. As for adopting the ways of the State has provided for remedying the evil, I know not of such ways. They take too much time, and a man’s life will be gone. I have other affairs to attend to. I came into this world, not chiefly to make this a good place to live in, but to live in it, be it good or bad.
During this year and the following one, refusing to collaborate militarily with France, Von Clausewitz left the Prussian army and joined the Russian army. He would participate throughout the campaign in Russia, playing a key role in bringing about the defection of Yorck’s Prussian corps from the French army, becoming a Russian liaison officer with the headquarters of General Blücher, then being appointed chief of staff of the German- Russian legion. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Amelia Opie’s TEMPER.
From this year until 1820, Martin Van Buren would be a State senator, would be a state attorney general, would be the leader of the Jeffersonian Republicans of New York, and would establish the first state-wide political machine in the country — known as the Albany Regency.
In upstate New York, the banks of the Genesee Falls were wilderness. With the tapering off of hostilities between England and the United States, and the prospect of the Erie Canal that was to cross above the Genesee River, the area east of the Genesee River, on the future site of Rochester, was purchased for mill sites by Samuel J. Andrews and Caleb Atwater, and the village to be named Rochesterville was laid out below the falls.
In Northampton, construction of the Old First Church. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
At about this point Cato Pearce, who had been working on a farm in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, signed on as a crewmember aboard a schooner belonging to a Captain Rogers of New London, Connecticut, on a cruise to the Caribbean. On his return in about 1815, after spending his wages, he would hire himself out to James Rhodes of Providence, Rhode Island. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
In approximately this year Robert Voorhis was building his hut on Fox Point,
a peninsula of uninhabited land about a mile south of Providence Bridge in Rhode Island, and would reside there for a number of years, until obnoxious construction work began in that vicinity. What had made this escaped-mulatto-slave-become-seaman resolve to become a hermit? —he said that had sneaked back down south via Baltimore to Georgetown in a fruitless attempt to recover his first wife and their children: Feeling a strong inclination once more to visit the shores of the south, where I had not only been unjustly deprived of my liberty, but where I was inhumanly forced from my beloved wife and two darling children, I took passage (about fifteen years since) on board a sloop for Baltimore, and from thence proceeded direct to Georgetown. As twenty years had elapsed since I there left all that I held most dear in life — and so great a change had time effected in my personal appearance, I felt little or no apprehension that I should be recognized or molested by any, if living, who once professed a claim to me. In this I was not mistaken, for indeed as regarded the town, inhabitants, &c. so great a change had the twenty years produced, that I walked the streets at mid-day unnoticed and unknown. My old master (Voorhis and his wife had been some years dead, and the survivors of the family had removed to parts unknown— Bevins, the wretch by whom I was unjustly deprived of my liberty, and thereby forever seperated [sic] from my unfortunate family, had a few years previous emigrated to the west— but, the principle object of my visit was not answered— of my wife and children I could obtain no satisfactory information— all that I could learn, was, that HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
soon after my disappearance, their sufferings and deprivations became so great, that my poor wife in a fit of desparation [sic], as was supposed, put an end to her existence, and that her helpless children did not long survive her!— this was enough! yea more than enough, to fill to the brim the bitter cup of my afflictions!— afflictions which had more less attended me through life!—I then felt but little desire to live, as there was nothing then remaining to attach me to this world— it was at that moment that I formed the determination to retire from it— to become a recluse, and mingle thereafter as little as possible with human society.
John Thompson was born in Maryland, the property of a Mrs. Wagar. Eventually, long after his escape, he would live at 19 May Street in Boston: I was born in Maryland, in 1812, and was slave to a Mrs. Wagar. She had four sons and two daughters. The sons were all farmers, owning large tracts of land; which were well stocked with slaves, and other animal property! When her youngest son, James H., was about forty or forty-five years of age, he owned the plantation upon which he and his mother lived, and on which I was born. On this plantation were about two hundred slaves, young and old; of which fifty belonged to him, and the remainder to his mother; but all were in his charge. Mr. J.H.W. had two children, John and Elizabeth. His wife died before I could remember, leaving the children under the supervision of the Grandmother. Elizabeth was about thirteen, and John ten years of age. My parents had seven children, five sons and two daughters. My father and mother were field hands. My younger sister was house girl and ladies’ maid, while the elder was given to one of the sons. The rest of us were too small to work, the eldest being only eleven years old.
Friend Johns Hopkins. went to work in Baltimore at the wholesale grocery of his uncle Gerard Hopkins. While living with this family, Johns and his cousin Elizabeth would fall in love, but the prejudice against the marriage of first cousins being so strong, neither would ever marry. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
James Kirke Paulding’s THE DIVERTING HISTORY OF JOHN BULL AND BROTHER JONATHAN, a pacifist treatise (cf. WALDEN’s play on “bottomless”): In a little time, Jonathan grew up to be large for his age, and became a tall, stout, double-jointed, broad-footed cub of a fellow, awkward in his gait, and simple in his appearance; but showing a lively, shrewd look, and having the promise of great strength when he should get his full growth. He was rather an odd-looking chap, in truth, and had many queer ways; but everyone that had seen John Bull saw a great likeness between them, and swore he was John’s own boy, and a true chip off the old block. like the old squire, he was apt to be blustering and saucy, but in the main was a peaceable sort of careless fellow, that would quarrel with nobody if you only let him alone. He used to dress in homespun trousers with a huge bagging seat, which seemed to have nothing in it. This caused people to say he had no bottom; but whoever said so lied, as they found to their cost whenever they put Jonathan in a passion. He always wore a linsey-woolsey coat, that did not above half cover his breech, and the sleeves of which were so short that his hand and wrist came out beyond them, looking like a shoulder of mutton. All which was in consequence of his growing so fast that he outgrew his clothes. UNCLE SAM HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812 HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
[In the cartoon a nearby screen, the “John Bull” English traveller character goes: “Hi Say, Sir, Ham I on the right road to ’Artford?” to which the American Brother Jonathan character with the umbrella helpfully responds “Well, you be.” Then John thinks to inquire further of Jonathan “How far shall I ave to go before I get there?” and Jonathan elaborates on this: “Well, if you turn round and go ’tother way may be you have to travel abeout ten mile. But if you keep on the way you are going, you’l have to go about eight thousand, I reckon.”] HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
CHAPTER 25
17 THE 2D WAR OF INDEPENDENCE, 1812-1815
American plan of cam- 260. Plan of Campaign, 1812. — The American plan of campaign was paign, 1812. that General Hull should invade Canada from Detroit. He could then march eastward, north of Lake Erie, and meet another army Objections to it. which was to cross the Niagara River. These two armies were to take up the eastward march and join a third army from New York. The three armies then would capture Montreal and Quebec and generally all Canada. It was a splendid plan. But there were three things in the way of carrying it out: (i) there was no trained American army; (2) there were no supplies for an army when gathered and trained; and (3) there was a small, well- trained and well-supplied army in Canada. DETROIT, ABOUT 1815. 261. Hull’s Surrender of Detroit, 1812. — In those days Detroit was separated from the settled parts of Ohio by two hundred miles Hull’s march to Detroit. of wilderness. To get his men and supplies to Detroit, Hull had first of all to cut a road through the forest. The British His misfortunes. learned of the actual declaration of war before Hull knew of it. They dashed down on his scattered detachments and seized his He surrenders Detroit, provisions. Hull sent out expedition after expedition to gather 1812. supplies and bring in the scattered settlers. Tecumthe and the other Indian allies of the British captured one expedition after another. The British advanced on Detroit, and Hull surrendered. By this disaster the British got control of the upper lakes. They even invaded Ohio. PERRY’S BATTLE 262. Perry’s Victory on Lake Erie, 1813. — But the British FLAG. triumph did not last long. In the winter of 1812-13 Captain Oliver Hazard Perry built a fleet of warships on Lake Erie. They Battle of Lake Erie 1813. were built of green timber cut for the purpose. They were poor McMaster, 234-235. vessels, but were as good as the British vessels. In September, 1813, Perry sailed in search of the British ships. Coming up Battle of the Thames, 1813. with them, he hoisted at his masthead a large blue flag with Lawrence’s immortal words, “Don’t give up the ship” (p. 212), worked upon it. The battle was fiercely fought. Soon Perry’s flagship, the _Lawrence_, was disabled and only nine of her crew were uninjured. Rowing to another ship, Perry continued the fight. In fifteen minutes more all the British ships surrendered. The control of Lake Erie was now in American hands. An early painting of the es- The British retreated from the southern side of the lake. cape of the _Constitution_ General Harrison occupied Detroit. He then crossed into Canada from the British fleet. The and defeated a British army on the banks of the river Thames men in the boat are prepar- (October, 1813). ing to carry out a small an- 263. The Frigate _Constitution_. — One of the first vessels to chor. get to sea was the _Constitution_, commanded by Isaac Hull. She Chased by a British fleet, sailed from Chesapeake Bay for New York, where she was to serve 1812, she escapes. as a guard-ship. On the way she fell in with a British squadron. 17. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES FOR SCHOOL USE by Edward Channing, Professor of History in Harvard University, Author of A STUDENTS’ HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, etc, with maps and illustrations, 1908 HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
The _Constitution_ sailed on with the whole British fleet in pursuit. Soon the wind began to die away. The _Constitution’s_ sails were soaked with water to make them hold the wind better. Then the wind gave out altogether, Captain Hull lowered his boats and the men began to tow the ship. But the British lowered their boats also. They set a great many boats to towing their fastest ship, and she began to gain on the _Constitution_. Then Captain Hull found that he was sailing over shoal water, although out of sight of land, so he sent a small anchor ahead in a boat. The anchor was dropped and men on the ship pulled in the anchor line. This was done again and again. The _Constitution _now began to gain on the British fleet. Then a sudden squall burst on the ships. Captain Hull saw it coming and made every preparation to take advantage of it. When the rain cleared away, the _Constitution_ was beyond fear of pursuit. But she could not go to New York, so Captain Hull took her to Boston. The government at once ordered him to stay where he was; but, before the orders reached Boston, the _Constitution_ was far away. _Constitution_ and 264. _Constitution_ and _Guerrière_, 1812. — For some time Hull _Guerrière_, 1812. cruised about in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. One day he sighted a British frigate — the _Guerrière_ — one of the ships that had Reasons for the victory. chased the _Constitution_. But now that Hull found her alone, he steered straight for her. In thirty minutes from the firing of the first gun the _Guerrière_ was a ruinous wreck. All of her masts and spars were shot away and most of her crew were killed or wounded. The _Constitution_ was only slightly injured, and was soon ready to fight another British frigate, had there been one to fight. Indeed, the surgeons of the _Constitution_ went on board of the _Guerrière_ to help dress the wounds of the British seamen. The _Guerrière_ was a little smaller than the _Constitution_ and had smaller guns. But the real reason for this great victory was that the American ship and the American guns were very much better handled than were the British ship and the British guns. _Wasp_ and the _Frolic_ 265. The _Wasp_ and the _Frolic_, 1812. — At almost the same time the American ship _Wasp_ captured the British brig Effect of these victories. _Frolic_. The _Wasp_ had three masts, and the _Frolic_ had only two masts. But the two vessels were really of about the same size, as the American ship was only five feet longer than her enemy, and had the lighter guns. In a few minutes after the beginning of the fight the _Frolic_ was a shattered hulk, with only one sound man on her deck. Soon after the conflict a British battleship came up and captured both the _Wasp_ and her prize. The effect of these victories of the _Constitution_ and the _Wasp_ was tremendous. Before the war British naval officers had called the _Constitution_ “a bundle of sticks.” Now it was thought to be no longer safe for British frigates to sail the seas alone. They must go in pairs to protect each other from “Old Ironsides.” Before long the _Constitution_, now commanded by Captain Bainbridge, had captured the British frigate _Java_, and the frigate _United States_, Captain Decatur, had taken the British ship _Macedonian_. On the other hand, the _Chesapeake_ was captured by the _Shannon_. This victory gave great satisfaction to the British. But Captain Lawrence’s last words, HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
“Don’t give up the ship,” have always been a glorious inspiration to American sailors. Plan of campaign, 1814. 266. Brown’s Invasion of Canada, 1814. — In the first two years of the war the American armies in New York had done nothing. But Battle of Lundy’s Lane, abler men were now in command. Of these, General Jacob Brown, 1814. General Macomb, Colonel Winfield Scott, and Colonel Ripley deserve to be remembered. The American plan of campaign was that Brown, with Scott and Ripley, should cross the Niagara River and invade Canada. General Macomb, with a naval force under McDonough, was to hold the line of Lake Champlain. The British plan was to invade New York by way of Lake Champlain. Brown crossed the Niagara River and fought two brilliant battles at Chippewa and Lundy’s Lane. The latter battle was especially glorious because the Americans captured British guns and held them against repeated attacks by British veterans. In the end, however, Brown was obliged to retire. Invasion of New York. 267. McDonough’s Victory at Plattsburg, 1814. — General Prevost, with a fine army of veterans, marched southward from Canada, Battle of Plattsburg, 1814. while a fleet sailed up Lake Champlain. At Plattsburg, on the western side of the lake, was General Macomb with a force of American soldiers. Anchored before the town was McDonough’s fleet. Prevost attacked Macomb’s army and was driven back. The British fleet attacked McDonough’s vessels and was destroyed. That put an end to Prevost’s invasion. He retreated back to Canada as fast as he could go. FORT McHENRY. 268. The British in the Chesapeake, 1814. — Besides their operations on the Canadian frontier, the British tried to Burning of Washington, capture New Orleans and the cities on Chesapeake Bay. The 1814. British landed below Washington. They marched to the capital. They entered Washington. They burned the Capitol, the White “The Star-Spangled Ban- House, and several other public buildings. They then hurried ner.” away, leaving their wounded behind them. Later on the British attacked Baltimore and were beaten off with great loss. It was at this time that Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.” He was detained on board one of the British warships during the fight. Eagerly he watched through the smoke for a glimpse of the flag over Fort McHenry at the harbor’s mouth. In the morning the flag was still there. This defeat closed the British operations on the Chesapeake. FLAG OF FORT McHEN- 269. The Creek War. — The Creek Indians lived in Alabama. They RY. Fifteen stars and fif- saw with dismay the spreading settlements of the whites. The teen stripes — one of each Americans were now at war. It would be a good chance to destroy for each state. them. So the Creeks fell upon the whites and murdered about four hundred. General Andrew Jackson of Tennessee commanded the BATTLE OF NEW Jackson’s Creek campaign, American army in the Southwest. As soon as he knew that the ORLEANS. From a 1814. Creeks were attacking the settlers, he gathered soldiers and sketch by one of Jack- followed the Indians to their stronghold. He stormed their fort son’s staff. and killed most of the garrison. Battle of New Or- 270. Jackson’s Defense of New Orleans, 1814-15. — Jackson had leans, 1815. scarcely finished this work when he learned of the coming of a Lodge and Roosevelt, great British expedition to the mouth of the Mississippi River. HERO TALES FROM He at once hastened to the defense of New Orleans. Below the AMERICAN HISTORY, city the country greatly favored the defender. For there was 139-147. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
very little solid ground except along the river’s bank. Picking out an especially narrow place, Jackson built a breastwork of cotton bales and rubbish. In front of the breastwork he dug a deep ditch. The British rushed to the attack. Most of their generals were killed or wounded, and the slaughter was terrible. Later, they made another attack and were again beaten off. Naval combats, 1814. 271. The War on the Sea, 1814. — It was only in the first year or so of the war that there was much fighting between American and British warships. After that the American ships could not get to sea, for the British stationed whole fleets off the entrances to the principal harbors. But a few American vessels ran the blockade and did good service. For instance, Captain Charles Stewart in the _Constitution_ captured two British ships at one time. But most of the warships that got to sea were captured sooner or later. The privateers. Lodge and 272. The Privateers. — No British fleets could keep the Roosevelt, HERO TALES privateers from leaving port. They swarmed upon the ocean and FROM A MERICAN H ISTORY, captured hundreds of British merchantmen, some of them within 129-136. sight of the shores of Great Britain. In all, they captured more than twenty-five hundred British ships. They even fought the smaller warships of the enemy. 273. Treaty of Ghent, 1814. — The war had hardly begun before commissioners to treat for peace were appointed by both the Treaty of peace, 1814. United States and Great Britain. But they did nothing until the failure of the 1814 campaign showed the British government that there was no hope of conquering any portion of the United States. Then the British were ready enough to make peace, and a treaty was signed at Ghent in December, 1814. This was two weeks before the British disaster at New Orleans occurred, and months before the news of it reached Europe. None of the things about which the war was fought were even mentioned in the treaty. But this did not really make much difference. For the British had repealed their orders as to American ships before the news of the declaration of war reached London. As for impressment, the guns of the _Constitution_ had put an end to that. THE OLD STATE 274. The Hartford Convention, 1814. — While the New HOUSE. Where the Hart- commissioners were talking over the treaty of peace, other ford Convention met. debaters were discussing the war, at Hartford, Connecticut. New England Federalists. These were leading New England Federalists. They thought that Hartford Convention, the government at Washington had done many things that the 1814. Constitution of the United States did not permit it to do. They drew up a set of resolutions. Some of these read like those other resolutions drawn up by Jefferson and Madison in 1798 (p. 175). The Hartford debaters also thought that the national government had not done enough to protect the coasts of New England from British attacks. They proposed, therefore, that the taxes collected by the national government in New England should be handed over to the New England states to use for their defense. Commissioners were actually at Washington to propose this division of the national revenue when news came of Jackson’s victory at New Orleans and of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. The commissioners hastened home and the Republican party regained its popularity with the voters. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Gains of the war. 275. Gains of the War. — The United States gained no territory The American nation. after all this fighting on sea and land. It did not even gain the abolition of impressment in so many words. But what was of far greater importance, the American people began to think of itself as a nation. Americans no longer looked to France or to England as models to be followed. They became Americans. The getting of this feeling of independence and of nationality was a very great step forward. It is right, therefore, to speak of this war as the Second War of Independence. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
JANUARY
January: The Portfolio contained a communication from Alexander Wilson headlined “Particulars on the death of Captain Lewis.”18
January: In Nottinghamshire, more than 300 more frames were broken and more than 1,000 additional British soldiers were sent to augment the about 2,300 soldiers who had already been dispatched to the district to quell this Luddite disturbance. More Luddites were arrested. Meanwhile, however, the protest was spreading, as a factory was being burned and machines were being broken in Yorkshire. [T]he various Luddite armies that operated in 1811 and 1812 were so carefully organized and disciplined and so effective in their attacks, causing damage to machines and property that amounted to more than £100,000, that they seemed a strong and highly threatening movement of a kind Britain had not known before — of “a character of daring and ferocity,” the Annual Register for 1812 said, “unprecedented among the lower classes in this country.” Then, too, they had enough popular support in the manufacturing districts to be able to carry on their secret, illegal activities for months on end without being betrayed, despite official bribes and threats, nighttime arrests, and interrogations, suggesting to certain minds at least that they were only the most visible part of a very widespread insurrectionary –possibly revolutionary– tendency in the land. moreover, their threat to the established order, both real and exaggerated, called forth the greatest spasm of repression Britain ever in its history used against domestic dissent, including batteries of spies and special constables, volunteer militias and posses, midnight raids, hanging judges, harsh punishments, and a force of soldiers stationed in the troubled regions greater even than that which had sailed to Portugal with Wellington to fight Napoleon’s armies four years before.
18. While traveling east along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee on his way from St. Louis toward the District of Columbia, Meriwether Lewis had died by gunshot at Grinder’s Stand, a wilderness inn south of Nashville, on the night of October 11, 1809, but sensational speculations of his having been murdered had since arisen. Wilson, who visited the grave and spoke with the woman who lived in that frontier cabin and was the sole witness, found no difficulties in the analysis that it had been a straightforward suicide by a depressed man who had twice before, it was reported, attempted to build up courage to do away with himself. Captain Lewis, who was still conscious the following morning with a piece gone from his forehead and his brain exposed, in begging a servant to take up a rifle and finish the job, had explained that during the night he had put his pistol to his own head. However, no- one had acted on the Captain’s request to finish the job and sometime that morning he had stopped breathing. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
January: The United States of America declared war on Britain. As President James Madison called for 50,000 volunteers to fight again against England, the slaves of Virginia wondered what this might mean for them — because in the war just over, the British had offered freedom to enslaved Americans who would fight alongside them. The conjunction of war rumors with the December 26 theater fire in Richmond touched off events in Henry County, where a slave group planned a rebellion to coincide with the expected British invasion. The group supposedly numbered between 30 and 40, and they were confident that once they had risen up they would have an army of Virginia slaves with them. A wagon driver among them had had contact with some slaves in Lynchburg, who said they would join in. Two of the leaders of this group were women. One of them, Celia, persuaded a slave named Tom to kill a slavemaster as the signal for the general rising. He bashed in the skull of his owner with a hoe and fled west across the Blue Ridge. He was caught in Montgomery County and interrogated. The plans for the slave revolt were recorded in the report from the Montgomery County magistrates of Tom’s murder confession, found in “Calendar of Virginia State Papers, Volume 10 (1808- 1835)” pages. 120 ff. The coroner’s report for the slavemaster murdered by Tom is in the Virginia state archive at the Library of Virginia: “Henry County Court Records/Loose Papers/Inquests” folder 3, “Murder of John Smith.” Tom’s responses showed that the blacks in Henry County had taken the Richmond fire as a sign: “the negroes in the neighborhood were glad that the people were burnt in Richmond, and wished that all the white people had been burnt with them. That God Almighty had sent a little Hell for the white people, and that in a little time they would get a greater.” They were aware of the war fever: “The negroes in the neighborhood said that these British people was about to rise against this Country.” The magistrates of Montgomery County warned the city of Richmond: “a spirit of rebellion is very obvious in this country ... where the greatest humility and obedience had hitherto been observed.”
January 1, Wednesday: For four days, Mount Vesuvius would be in eruption: “Effusiva — Lava ad W verso Torre del Greco.”
The Austrian Empire’s new Civil Code went into effect.
Dr. Benjamin Rush, a mutual friend, had been attempting to get former President John Adams to reconcile with former President Thomas Jefferson. Adams had been bitterly resentful of Jefferson’s claim that he was of uniquely importance as the author of a foundational document, the Declaration of Independence. That document had in fact not been a foundational document of the United States of America at all, but a mere piece of political theatre, nor in fact had Jefferson, low man on the totem pole, had that much of a hand in the creation of it. “The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show,” he wrote at this point. “Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect ... and all the glory of it.” However, on this day for the first time in 11 years, Adams did send off a letter to Jefferson.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st of 1 Mo 1812// I commence the new Year under feelings of depression, & seriousness on various subjects - And a concern renewed on my mind this evening, that I may double my dilligence in labor to dwell near the life & not suffer it to be lessened by neglect. Altho I have not expressed much for a long time in my journal relative to my progress in religious matters yet I have not been unmindful of them, but there is Such a Sameness in each days experience that it seems like unnecessary repitition to express how it is with me daily - When I do well I feel peace & in proportion to my neglect of duty in my condemnation19 HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
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January 2, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 2nd of 1 M 1812// This day news was brought to town that Joseph Cundell was found Near his mill coverd in a bank of Snow he was found Yesterday & bury’d this Afternoon. — It so happened this day that my buisness was so that I omitted meeting. - but my mind has been in a favor’d State for which I desire to be thankful. -Set most of the eveng at home —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
January 3, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 3 of 1 Mo// Again the mind under exercise which I hope may be proffitable — Sister Mary set the eveng with us — —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
January 4, Saturday: Miss Abigail Dudley, who had provided funds for a choir in Concord, died. Her grave would be marked by the 1st gravestone to be fashioned out of white stone, in the Hill Burying-Ground.
“THIS STONE IS DESIGNED BY ITS DURABILITY TO PERPETUATE THE MEMORY, AND BY ITS COLOUR TO SIGNIFY THE MORAL CHARACTER OF MISS ABIGAIL DUDLEY, WHO DIED JAN. 4, 1812 AGED 73.” This, actually, was the year of the greatest average age of death in Concord: 19. Stephen Wanton Gould Diary, 1812-1815: The Gould family papers are stored under control number 2033 at the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections of Cornell University Library, Box 7 Folder 10 for May 1, 1809-June 30, 1812 and Folder 11 for July 1, 1812-August 20, 1815. Series 7 Microfilm Reel #3, positive, is made up of Friend Stephen Wanton Gould’s Diary #11, 1812- 1815 (July 1, 1812-August 20, 1815, of which the original is held by the Quaker Collection of Haverford College) HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
The following table, exhibiting the number of deaths [in Concord] between several specified ages, the number each year, the aggregate amount of their ages, average age, &c. &c. during the 50 years commencing January 1, 1779, and ending December 31, 1828, was compiled from records carefully kept by the Rev. Dr. Ripley [Ezra Ripley]. Great labor has been expended to make it correct and intelligible.
Under to to to to to to to to to to to Aggre. Average Year. Total. 1 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Am. Age. Age.
1779 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 2 4 1 0 12 578 48
1780 1 2 1 1 0 0 1 1 3 0 0 0 10 307 30
1781 3 1 0 1 0 2 0 1 1 2 1 3 15 721 48
1782 1 2 1 0 1 2 0 1 1 5 3 1 18 933 52
1783 5 2 1 0 4 2 3 1 2 3 1 0 24 811 34
1784 4 1 1 2 2 0 0 1 1 2 1 2 17 607 35
1785 2 0 1 0 3 2 2 3 2 2 0 0 17 672 39
1786 4 1 0 4 3 1 1 0 1 2 1 1 19 590 31
1787 2 2 0 0 1 2 1 1 2 0 1 0 12 416 35
1788 2 0 2 0 2 2 2 1 2 3 3 0 19 877 46
1789 3 1 0 1 2 3 0 1 1 4 1 0 17 694 41
1790 2 5 2 2 2 0 3 0 3 4 3 0 26 970 37
1791 3 1 0 0 0 1 2 1 3 3 3 0 17 841 49
1792 5 0 0 1 4 3 1 6 2 2 1 1 26 1021 39
1793 1 0 3 0 1 2 2 4 1 3 0 2 19 894 47
1794 1 1 1 0 4 3 0 1 5 1 3 1 21 1018 49
1795 0 2 0 4 3 4 1 1 2 2 2 0 21 824 39
1796 1 8 2 0 2 2 2 2 1 6 1 0 27 926 34
1797 3 1 1 1 2 1 4 1 1 3 3 0 21 893 43
1798 4 3 0 2 2 0 1 0 1 5 2 1 21 831 39
1799 0 1 0 1 4 0 2 3 4 4 1 0 20 1006 50
1800 3 7 0 0 0 4 1 2 1 4 2 1 25 926 37
1801 3 3 2 6 3 0 2 2 3 4 4 0 32 1197 37
1802 2 4 1 3 2 2 1 3 1 6 2 0 27 1067 39 HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Under to to to to to to to to to to to Aggre. Average Year. Total. 1 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Am. Age. Age.
1803 2 7 2 3 4 9 3 0 3 2 2 1 38 1194 31
1804 4 4 0 3 3 1 3 3 1 4 2 1 29 1037 39
1805 12 1 0 3 6 2 0 2 2 2 5 0 35 1132 32
1806 5 4 0 1 6 2 1 3 4 1 4 1 32 1201 39
1807 7 1 0 2 6 2 3 1 3 4 2 1 32 1182 37
1808 1 5 1 0 0 1 3 2 4 0 2 0 19 722 38
1809 2 3 0 0 2 1 3 1 2 2 2 1 19 821 43
1810 5 1 1 3 3 4 4 3 6 4 3 1 38 1626 45
1811 1 2 2 0 4 1 1 2 4 2 2 0 21 881 42
1812 3 6 2 1 1 5 2 2 3 3 3 1 32 1131 36
1813 3 2 1 2 4 2 3 3 1 4 2 0 27 1094 40
1814 2 0 0 0 4 4 4 1 3 0 2 2 22 1012 46
1815 4 2 4 5 4 5 3 4 5 4 6 1 47 1910 41
1816 6 1 0 1 2 0 1 3 2 4 1 0 21 802 38
1817 2 4 2 2 4 0 5 1 1 0 0 0 21 495 28
1818 2 1 0 2 1 4 1 3 3 2 1 0 20 825 41
1819 2 2 1 4 0 3 3 4 2 4 1 1 27 1006 37
1820 2 3 0 0 2 3 2 5 0 5 6 0 28 1374 49
1821 3 5 0 2 0 1 3 3 2 10 4 0 33 1582 48
1822 2 10 1 3 5 2 2 3 2 4 2 2 38 1285 34
1823 5 3 1 1 2 1 3 3 2 1 3 1 26 970 37
1824 4 3 0 1 1 2 4 4 3 5 2 0 29 1244 43
1825 3 7 1 1 2 2 5 6 4 6 3 0 40 1645 41
1826 8 6 4 0 3 2 8 4 1 5 2 0 43 1367 32
1827 2 2 0 0 1 3 1 2 1 0 3 0 19 893 44
1828 4 4 0 0 0 1 3 1 2 5 1 2 23 1020 48
It is impossible to specify the diseases by which the several persons died. As far as can be ascertained from the Rev. Dr. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Ripley [Ezra Ripley]’s records, it appears that about one seventh of the whole number died of consumption, one fifth of fevers of various kinds, one twelfth of old age, one sixteenth of canker-rash, one nineteenth of the dropsy, one twenty-fifth of paralytic affections, and nearly the same number each of dysentery and casualties. By adding the columns in the above table, we shall find that the whole number, who died during the 50 years, was 1242; of whom 153 died under 1 year of age; 137 of 1 and under 5; 42 of 5 and under 10; 70 of 10 and under 20; 119 of 20 and under 30; 101 of 30 and under 40; 106 of 40 and under 50; 106 of 50 and under 80; 106 of 80 and under 90; 28 of 90 and under 100; and a native black of 105. Of these 107 died in January, 111 in February, 118 in March, 103 in April, 88 in May, 81 in June, 88 in July, 95 in August, 115 in September, 121 in October, 121 in November, and 94 in December. These proportions generally hold good in particular years, more deaths occurring in the spring and autumn than at other seasons of the year. Of those who lived 80 years and over, 54 were males and 81 females; 90 and over, 8 were males and 21 females; 95 and over, 3 were males and 4 females. The year when the least number of deaths occurred was 1780, and when the greatest, 1815. The yearly average is 25 nearly. the least average age was in 1817, the greatest average in 1812. The aggregate amount of all the ages, for 50 years, is 49,192, and the mean average age nearly 40. Estimating our population, during this period, at an average of 1665, which is nearly correct, as will appear on reference to our account of the population, we shall find that 1 in 66 dies annually.
153 or 1 in 8 1-8 died under 1 year. 620 or 1 in 2 lived 40 and upwards.
218 or 1 in 5 2-3 died under 2 years. 570 or 1 in 2 1-3 lived 45 and upwards.
255 or 1 in 4 8-9 died under 3 years. 514 or 1 in 2 2-5 lived 50 and upwards.
270 or 1 in 4 3-5 died under 4 years. 463 or 1 in 2 3-5 lived 55 and upwards.
290 or 1 in 4 1-3 died under 5 years. 408 or 1 in 3 1-11 lived 60 and upwards.
304 or 1 in 4 1-11 died under 6 years. 354 or 1 in 3 1-2 lived 65 and upwards.
332 or 1 in 3 3-4 died under 10 years. 296 or 1 in 4 1-5 lived 70 and upwards.
358 or 1 in 3 1-2 died under 15 years. 209 or 1 in 5 1-17 lived 75 and upwards.
402 or 1 in 3 1-11 died under 20 years. 135 or 1 in 9 1-5 lived 80 and upwards.
472 or 1 in 2 3-5 died under 25 years. 69 or 1 in 18 lived 85 and upwards.
521 or 1 in 2 2-5 died under 30 years. 29 or 1 in 42 5-6 lived 90 and upwards.
571 or 1 in 2 1-3 died under 35 years. 7 or 1 in 177 3-7 lived 95 and upwards.
622 or 1 in 2 died under 40 years. 2 lived to 99, and 1 to 105.
In these calculations minute fractions are omitted. They exhibit results highly favorable to the health of the town. Few towns HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
are so healthy.20
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 4th of 1 Mo// The day passed as usual; Set the eveng at home — —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
January 5, Sunday: French forces surrounding Valencia began to bombard the city.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 5 of 1 Mo// I had an hard battle to engage with the enemy this Morning but thro’ divine favor was enabled to keep clear of offense & if I sinned I believe it was only in thought thus overcoming enabled me to enjoy precious meeting for which I desire to be thankful -In the forenoon D Buffum gave us a lively testimony from the text “Boast not thyself of tomorrow” & very pertinently alluded to the late sudden disaster by Storms at sea & fire in Richmond Va where in the Theater many lives were lost in a few minutes — In the Afternoon C R & H Dennis both appear’d sweetly in testimony. I set most of the evening at home, with my mind comfortably retired which is a State I love to feel — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 6, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 6th of 1 Mo// The mind again in conflict which I hope & pray may prove proffitable, may the Stubble & reprobate Metal be consumed, & nothing left which obstructs the circulation of the life - In the Morng went to Wm Pattens to hear the relations of a passenger in the Ship Orion Capt Barzille Huzzey of Nantucket from London of grievances & imposition of the Captain on the Voige, which were truly afflicting, the Man whose name was White a Presbiterian Minister supposed the Capt was a member of our Society & wanted the interference of Some of our Members - but on investigation I am induced to think he is not in membership & if he is his conduct has been a disgrace to Us. — In the eveng Met at C J Tennys with the Directors of the African benevolent Society — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
20. In France, 1 in 31 arrives to the age of 70; in London 1 in 10; in Philadelphia, 1 in 15; and in Connecticut 1 in 8. In Salem, 1 in 48 dies annually; in Philadelphia, 1 in 45; in Boston, 1 in 41; in London, 1 in 40; in Paris, 1 in 32; and in Vienna, 1 in 22. — See History of Dedham and American Quarterly Review, Vol. VIII. p. 396. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study. On July 16, 1859 he would correct a date mistake buried in the body of the text.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
January 7, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 7 of 1 M 1812// My H Spent this Afternoon with our dear Aunts Martha Mary & Hannah Gould, we also set the eveng. I can say it was an agreeable time to me - ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 8, Wednesday: The Spanish defenders of Valencia surrendered to the surrounding French. Meanwhile, British and Portuguese troops had surrounded the French in Ciudad Rodrigo.
Sigismond Fortuné François Thalberg was born in Pâquis near Geneva, son of Joseph Thalberg and Fortunée Stein (it was possible that at that point both of his parents were the marriage partners of others).
Gioachino Rossini’s farsa L’inganno felice to words of Foppa after Palomba was performed for the initial time, in Teatro San Moisè, Venice, and was very successful with critics and public.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 8 of 1 Mo// This day has been pretty much occupied in the Discharge of the Duties of my new appointment as Overseer of the Poor ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 9, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 9 of 1 Mo// Our meeting was silent & comfortable, at least it felt so to me; My H set the Afternoon at Brother Isaac’s. I took tea with them. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 10, Friday: The steamboat New Orleans arrived in New Orleans. And yes, despite the dire prediction of the mayor of Cincinnati, it would be able to make its way back upriver against the current (since it was almost empty).
Friend Luke Howard observed what we would now term smog above the great metropolis of London: ...the sky, where any light pervaded it, showed the aspect of bronze. Such is, occasionally, the effect of the accumulation of smoke between two opposite gentle currents, or by means of a misty calm. I am informed that the fuliginous cloud was visible, HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
in this instance, for a distance of forty miles.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 10 of 1 Mo// My mind has been brought under feelings which are pleasant, tho’ of a serious nature, for which I desire to be thankful ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 11, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 11 of 1 Mo// Nothing particular to insert more than that the Day passes as usual — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 12, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 12 of 1 Mo// In the forenoon we had a Sweet testimony from H Dennis - In the Afternoon silence, & according to my sense they were both good solid Meetings. — Set the eveng at Home Sister Mary spent it with us — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 13, Monday: The publication of Jan Ladislav Dussek’s Two Duos for piano and harp C.257-258 was entered at Stationer’s Hall, London.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 13 of 1 Mo// The usual rounds - In the eveng called to HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
see Mary Williams Junr who is quite sick — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 14, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 14 of 1 Mo// The day has again passed without anything particular to insert - Sister Ruth set the eveng with us agreeably — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 15, Wednesday: Johannes Herbst died in Salem, North Carolina at the age of 76.
If one looked carefully, one could still make out the great comet Flaugergues (C/1811 F1) in the night skies, in the constellation Aquarius. (It had been visible since late March in 1811: this had been and still is the longest period of naked-eye visibility of any comet of which we have record.) SKY EVENT
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 15th of 1 Mo// Father seems to look much more poorly than common this morng [?] & complains of a new infermity vizt a pain in his breast, The left [?], thinks he has a fever, has prescribed some Medicine & he is better this eveng - tho very feeble — Sister Eliza spent the day with us — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
2d half of January: During the courtship of John Thoreau and Cynthia Dunbar, John had been living on the Concord square and learning merchandising from Deacon John White, while Cynthia, the daughter of Mrs. Captain Minot, had been living with her mother in the farmhouse on Virginia Road. At this point what usually happened in New England during courtship in those days happened, and Cynthia became pregnant. THE DEACONS OF CONCORD
DUNBAR FAMILY
THOREAU GENEALOGY HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
January 16, Thursday: In his consideration Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was not prosecuting the peninsular war with sufficient vigor, and so Lord Wellesley resigned as Foreign Secretary.
Samuel Hoar, Jr., Joseph Barrett, and Jonas Lee prepared a petition to the Massachusetts legislature, that due to the decrepitude of the Middlesex County buildings in Cambridge, the county offices ought at this point to be removed to Concord. They, and Tilly Merrick, Isaac Hurd, Jonas Buttrick, Francis Jarvis, and Benjamin Prescott, Jr., would be authorized by the townspeople to present this to the legislature: “To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. “The inhabitants of the town of Concord, in the county of Middlesex, humbly show, that the existing laws, requiring some of the sessions of the courts for said county to be holden in said Concord and others in Cambridge in said county, are in their execution attended with many inconveniences. The clerk of said courts is required to transport a large number of dockets and other papers from his office in Cambridge to Concord, when the courts are to hold a session in the latter place; delays are often produced in the trial of causes by the unforeseen demand of papers, in the public offices, at a distance from the place of trial; a large bill of costs is annually crated to said county by the transportation of prisoners from one of those towns to the other, for trial; parties, jurors and witnesses, when the courts sit at Cambridge, are drawn to one extremity of the county to attend the trail of causes; much useless expense to said county is created, not only in building, but in the frequent repairing two court- houses and two jails. The court-house and jail in Cambridge are now old and decayed, and unfit to answer the purposes for which they were built; and others, if the courts are hereafter to be holden there, must soon be erected. “Your memorialists further represent, that said Concord is nearly in the centre of said county, and that a court-house and jail in said town have recently been erected at a considerable expense, which are commodious and sufficient for the use of said county; that in the court-house in Concord, convenient rooms for all public offices for said county may be fitted up at a trifling expense, in which the public records may be deposited more safely than in their present situation. “Wherefore your memorialists pray, that said Concord may be made the shire town of said county, and that all the courts for said county may in future be holden in said town of Concord. And as in duty bound will ever pray.”21
21. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study. On July 16, 1859 he would correct a date mistake buried in the body of the text.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
(This effort would fail.)
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 16th of 1 M 1812// Father rested comfortable last night, & has been free from pain thro’ the day, but he is so week that he has kept his bed all day, in getting up this evening found himself much fatigued, he would not consent to have a fire in the Chamber untill I prevailed upon him this Afternoon & while making it up It seem’d to me as if it would be his last illness -I never saw him so sick & low in body before.— ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 17, Friday: After a successful performance in Leipzig, Carl Maria von Weber and Heinrich Baermann left the city to respond to an invitation from Gotha.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 17 of 1 Mo// Our dear father seems very low this Morng & much distressed for breath, when I went into his room this morning to carry some fire, I asked him how he did, he said “I am no better. This is hard service I have come to, it is such a turn as I never had before, but I have ruffed it along a great while, & it will be but a little longer on Mothers asking him to take a powder, he said, I dont see that they do any good, I want something for my breath between 10 & 11 OClock the Doctr came & opened a vein, which as yet has not much relieved his breathing, he came again between 12 & 1 OC & says the fever is not so high but considers his case very doubtful & proposes a blister to the Side While I with dear Aunt Patty Gould was setting by him just now, speaking of his fever he said, The Dr told him it was not so high, but it is the highest & the lowest time I ever knew.” The Doctor thinks his complaint is the Peripnumony which in addition to his precious weekness render’d his case very dubious -he has been a little more easy thro’ the Afternoon, particularly since his blisters were on & if they draw well thro’ the night & no more unfavorable symptoms take place there may be some room to hope he may recruit a little. — I was much gratified that Our friend D Buffum called to see him, not being present I know not as he had any thing particular to communicate.- This is the most afflicting period of my life, I know not how to express myself ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
January 18, Saturday: A $100 reward, plus costs, was issued for the capture and return of Jack, his wife Betty, and their daughter Fanny, who were eluding the white Virginian who had purchased them, James A. Glenn. Jack, who had formerly been the property of J. Byad, was a small mulatto man of about 40 or 45 years of age and a very sensible man with hair that could be made to appear straight. He had been an active good gardener, hostler, and carriage driver. Betty, his wife, who had formerly been the property of John Corbin, was a fleshy mulatto woman between 30 and 35 years of age, and a very pleasant person. Fanny, their daughter, had reached 14 or 15 years of age, was very crosseyed, was short and stout, and was like her mother a very pleasant person. The newspaper advertisement suggested that they might be residing with free relatives of color and would probably be pretending to be themselves also free:
Naughty Jack. Naughty Betty. Naughty crosseyed Fanny. What, did they suppose they were entitled to — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? SLAVERY
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 18th of 1 M 1812// Our dear father is no better this morning, when I went into his room & enquired how he felt with some difficulty he said I am no better, I have had a very hard HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
night — He has been as comfortable as could be expected this day tho’ very weak & low. I think I have not seen him sleep so easy nor fetch so long breaths since he was taken as this evening, yet from his many weaknesses & emaciated body I hardly dare lay hold of hope. - ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
NEVER READ AHEAD! TO APPRECIATE JANUARY 18TH, 1812 AT ALL ONE MUST APPRECIATE IT AS A TODAY, APPRECIATE IT WARTS AND ALL. AT THIS POINT WHO COULD HAVE IMAGINED THAT THE US OF A WOULD EMBROIL ITSELF IN AN INTERMINABLE BLOODY SECTIONAL CIVIL STRIFE AND THAT, TO PUT A GOOD FACE ON ALL THIS SLAUGHTER, IT WOULD DECIDE TO SAY THAT THIS WAS ALL ABOUT GIVING FREEDOM TO BLACK PEOPLE? I MEAN, REALLY!
January 19, Sunday: France reoccupied Swedish Pomerania.
Allied (UK-Portugal-Spain) troops captured the French garrison at Ciudad Rodrigo southwest of Salamanca.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 19 of 1 Mo// My dear father remains much as yesterday. I Watched with him last night & dear Aunt Patty Gould set up with me, desirous to do as much as long as she can for him, he rested the forepart of the night & rased [?] as easy as could be expected, about 3 OClock he became very restless & wanted to get up, but we prevailed upon him to lay till near day break & thro’ the day his raising continued easy to what it was - This evening while the Doctor was there he expressed his satisfaction with him & said he believed he could & did do all that a Doctor could for him he also spake of our great attention to him & when ever I went to him thro’ the last night & today he seem’d very affectionate. Our very kind & helpful friend Thos Hornsby spent most of the Afternoon & evening with him ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
January 20, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 20 of 1 Mo// My dear father seems weaker this morng but remains sensible - he has been restless & uncomfortable thro’ the day but after being got up in the eveng he seem’d quite as comfortable as could be expected & slept more than an hour & at nine OClock I left him as well as could be expected - He asked Mother what was the day of the Month on her telling him the 20th he said this is the day that John was to sail Meaning Uncle John Stanton who we had heard previous to his illness was to sail on this day from N York for Liverpool, after he waked out of a nap of sleep, he was asked if he wanted any thing he said no nothing but to be still & quiet - In the course of the day he told Susanna Davenport an old friend of the family that, he knew his time was Short & that he was quite resigned to & Satisfied with the event ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 21, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould’s father, James Gould, died. 3rd day 21 of 1 M 1812// I think my dear father seems, not to be more sunken this morng than he was last night, tho’ his Watchers (who were Benj Hadwen & Hannah Hull) say that he was much distressed till after 2 OClock in the morning 11 OC AM I think my dear father is now sinking very fast, he breaths short, is cold, & refuses to take any thing whatever, but lays very composed & his countenance bespeaks a placid state 1 OC PM, My dear father is still more sunk than when I wrote the above, he does not speak & appears to be fast expiring, his countenance is still placid, & he looks around on all in the room as if he knew all, & I have no doubt he does & is sensible that the last moment of his existence fast approaches, - Oh Awful Era,! may my soul be prepared for it, when it may arrive. — At several times and particularly a few minutes ago, while Standing by his bedside it seem’d as if all fell into Stillness which was attended with a Solemn but sweet covering, & my spirit favord to partake a little of it, for which I desire to be thankful Past 2 OClock I have now the painful distressing task to insert the decease of my dear & affectionate father he breathed his last in this World about 10 Minutes before 2 OClock this Afternoon - not expecting his disolution quite so soon I stepped out & wrote the foregoing but was soon sent for. I found he had lain much as I left him untill be became violently convulsed & when he came out of that very soon expired - The dear old man continued sensible & knew all around him untill he became convulsed, a few minutes before that time Mother asked him if he knew Isaac he nodded his head to say yes but his weakness had so far increased that he was past speaking This morning Mother perceived that it was not probable that he could last long expressed to him her apprehension of their being soon to part in this World, he reply’d that he was fully sensible of it, & said we met in Love & we part in it, he said that as to his great account he felt no uneasiness about it, believing HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
it to be settled but that some of his outward affairs were not so well arranged as he could wish, but however he was not very uneasy about them - About two Months ago he purchased a small house of which it was his intention to have given, his Sisters a life lease in, Mother afsured him that She would see that they should not be disturbed, to which he added that he knew if she had not have exerted herself in the affair it never would have been procured, -he has many times manifested his satisfaction at having Aunt Patty Gould with him, & when our Good old friend Susanna Davenport came to see him he expressed his readiness to depart & seem’d desirous for her to Stay in the house as long as he lasted which she did & was truly helpful. — Thomas Hornsby’s kindness & attenion he also seem’d very greatful for, & indeed thro’ his whole illness his patience & affection towards those around him has been remarkable, & he has now gone I have no doubt to rest, from the labors pains & fatigue if this World to a world where Sorrow is no more known, to receive a reward according to his Works. - ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 22, Wednesday: A 3d regency was set up in Spain to rule for King Fernando VII, in opposition to the French.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 22nd of 1 mo 1812// My dear father now lays a Corpse, I think I never saw him look more natural, indeed he looks more like himself than he has for several months. There seems to be allmost a Smile on his Countenance, which to my mind is an additional evidence of his being now at rest. — I have been most of the day at home my dear H being in a situation which prevented her being with my dear Mother in this trying occasion, & from her present situation & the severity of the Weather has prevented her going to see father in his illness which has been a great cross to her & not less so to us all - but we are favor’d with quiet minds for which & all other blessing I desire to be renewedly thankful ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 23, Thursday: At 9AM there was a follow-on major (~7.0-7.8 Richter) earthquake along the New Madrid fault, continuing the damage that had begun on December 16, 1811. After this string of quakes, there would be a new lake in Tennessee, Reelfoot Lake, that had not existed in 1810.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 23 of 1 Mo// This is the day we have concluded on to pay the last duties to the remains of our dear father, his corpse retains its placidity & is no way alter’d from yesterday. — The funeral was at 2 OClock at the house attended by many friends HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
& respectable inhabitants of the town, for he was a man of good Report & unblemished Character, but there was not near as many attended as would have done had the going been more safe, much snow was on the Ground & the walking very slippery — After about an hours setting at the house our friend D Buffum observed that such a Solemn pause on such occasions was very proper & useful in giving time for reflections, that the turn must soon be hours & he then thought if all were easy it was a suitable time to proceed to the last Duties — Which we did, & during the time of the funeral, I think I can say for us all, Our minds were favor’d with as much composure as could be expected on an occasion so trying, so deeply afflicting Altho’ Our dear father had lived to the Advanced Age of nearly 73 Years & from his numerous infermities of body, it could not be expected he could live much longer to go in & out before us, yet, the event is hard to bear, we shall feel his loss each succeeding day of our lives, & very expecially Our dear & affectionate Mother who will feel as a Stricken Deer or Sparrow on the house top. We much regret, the weather has been such that we could not have the company of our Cousins Peleg Gardiner & Wife, & Lewis L Clarke from Narragansett, it would have been a peculiar Stay & comfort expecially to Mother, but we could not even send them Word of our Situation. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 24, Friday: Robert Fulton’s and Livingston’s workshops in New-York were destroyed by arson.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 24th of 1 M 1812// I have spent most of the day in writing to L L Clarke & finishing some other writing on hand —finding my self not very well & a pain sometimes in my side I thought it was most prudent to Set the evening at home to avoid exposure to this very raw & uncomfortable air. — I hardly ever knew a more severe Spell of weather than we have had for several weeks past —- ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
January 25, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 25 of 1 Mo// The loss of my dear father has been the Subject of my thoughts most of the day & indeed let my body be employed about what it would that has been uppermost in my mind. I desire yea pray that we may all be favor’d to abide in the Quiet & live in the peace together. My dear Mother seems much striped & my dear Aunts much foresaken, but I trust they have those yet living who will care for them & feel affectionatly for their wellfare. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 26, Sunday: France annexed Andorra.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 26 of 1 Mo// Owing to the very sloppy walking our meeting was smaller than common, especially in the Afternoon —In the forenoon C Rodman spoke to the people — After tea I called a little while at D Williams & set the remainder of the eveng at home & read Bucannans Christian Researches in Asia ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 27, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 27 of 1 Mo// Rec’d letters from Cousin L L Clarke which was as a brooke by the way — We every day feel the recent great loss revived, & my heart is indeed hevy in the rememberance, but he is gone from us & it now remains for Survivors to make the best of our journey to a better country where I doubt not but he has gone & is at peace & rest. - ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 28, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 28th of 1st M 1812// Every time I enter the late dwelling of my dear father, I feel his loss & miss him from his seat both in the Shop & house, which allways leaves a painful voice in my mind, but it teach us to realize & reconcile the various changes to which we are subject in passing thro this probationary state & vale of tears. - HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
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January 29, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 29 of 1 Mo// The usual rounds of buisness & the usual feelings & reflections of late — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 30, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 30 of 1 Mo// This day was our Moy [Monthly] Meeting held in town which was made small in consequence of the bad weather travelling -20 females attended, yet the buisness of both Meetings was transacted pretty well - In the first C R was concern’d in testimony which to my mind carried the evidence of the right thing & I beleive made its way in the minds of All present - The last was to me a low time but was not an hard time. - I was favor’d with feeling & some good degree of animation, for which I desire to be thankful In the eveng called a little while at D Williams & set the remainder at Home Sisters Ruth & Eliza being there - ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
January 31, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 31 of 1 Mo// My mind has been much occupied in feeling & thinking on the loss of my dear & very affectionate father. I miss him every day & shall continue to untill the end of my Days — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
FEBRUARY
November 1811/February 1812: Publication of Volume 19, a quarter-year of issues of THE EDINBURGH REVIEW, OR CRITICAL JOURNAL.
February: In England, the Declaration of Rights was printed. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
February: A bill was introduced before the British parliament to punish frame breaking by hanging, and Lord Byron spoke in opposition to this increase in punishment. Meanwhile some 30 additional frames were being broken in Nottinghamshire, and as the protest spread, a warehouse was burned and a factory attacked in Lancashire/Cheshire, and three workshops were being attacked and machines broken in Yorkshire.
Early February: The Shelleys traveled to Dublin. In Ireland, Percy Bysshe Shelley would be publishing two pamphlets, ADDRESS TO THE IRISH PEOPLE and PROPOSALS FOR AN ASSOCIATION OF ... PHILANTHROPISTS.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was in the Lake District of England for his final time, until a point during March.
February 1, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 1 of 2 M 1812// The mind occupied much as Yesterday & nothing has transpired different from the usual rounds ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 2, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 2 of 2 Mo// Our meetings were large - In the forenoon C R preached, (I have no doubt) with good Authority Set the eveng at Home with My H. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 3, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 3 of 2 Mo// Attended the Town Council with my Dear Mother to prove the Will of my late dear father, a trying time to Mother She has my sincere sympathy. My H being pretty Smart spent the Day at my Mothers - Father & Mother Rodman spent the Afternoon ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 4, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 4th of 2 M 1812// I have spent part of this day in finishing a letter which I begun yesterday to Uncle & Aunt Stanton giving a more particular acct of my dear fathers sickness & Death My dear Aunt Martha Gould spent the Afternoon & part of the evening with us. - While I set looking at her my mind was struck with her innocent countenance, & mild affectioate tone of voice. I love her much & believe I have thro’ life duly appreciated her worth to me, she has been to me in my youth an anxious caretaker & continues to this day to love me & I do her most sincerely — HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
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February 5, Wednesday: Governor Tompkins’s committee submitted a report suggesting the basic features of a school system that would become New York state law.
After some private performances and a public concert in Weimar, Carl Maria von Weber and Heinrich Baermann arrived in Dresden.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 5 of 2 Mo// Nothing but the usual rounds & the usual reflections thro’ the Day. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 6, Thursday: José García de León y Pizarro replaced Eusebio Bardají y Azara as First Secretary of State of the resistance government of Spain.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 6 of 2 Mo// I am sorry again to acknowledge that buisness has kept me from meeting, a circumstance which I allways lament but so it is. Sometimes things will so opperate as to prevent — It is remarkable that most of our friends who went yesterday to Providence to attend the Quarterly Meeting return’d this Afternoon towards night, it appears meeting got thro’ in season for them to go on board the Packet by 3 OClock & they got down before night which is a circumstance never before happened. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 7, Friday: At 4:45AM there was another follow-on major (~7.4-8.0 Richter) earthquake along the New Madrid fault, completing the series that had begun on December 16, 1811 and continued on January 23, 1812. After this series of major quakes, there would be a new lake in Tennessee, Reelfoot Lake, that had not existed in 1810. I’m sure there couldn’t have been any connection, but at Landport in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, Charles Dickens (Charles John Huffam Dickens) was born into a family beleaguered by debt. His father John Dickens, son of a butler and a housekeeper at Crewe Hall, had risen to the post of clerk in the Navy Pay Office. His mother Elizabeth Barrow was the daughter of a senior clerk in that Navy Pay Office.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 7 of 2 Mo// My mind has for Several days been brought under close exercise, from an apprehension that Duty will lead me to write a letter to Uncle Benjamin Gould touching the things of his everlasting Peace, but peculiar circumstances render the performance of it a great trial, & how it will terminate in my mind I cannot tell at present. I do most ardently wish him well, & at this time my secret Prayer is that his last days may be his best Days HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
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February 8, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 8 of 2 Mo// My mind is exercised with subjects before me, the importance of which feel momentous. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 9, Sunday: Incidental music for Kotzebue’s plays The Ruins of Athens and King Stephen by Ludwig van Beethoven was performed for the initial time, at the opening of the Pest Theater.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 9 of 2 Mo// C Rodman spake in our forenoon meeting & according to my judgement a good evidence attended his communication - The Afternoon Meeting was Silent - It has been a day of exercise to my Spirit, which I hope may prove proffitable —- Set the eveng at home with my H. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 10, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 10 of 2 Mo// This eveng paid visits of Sympathy to my old neighbors Saml Gibbs & Saml Towle, the latter is very sick himself & has a daughter very low, his wife also suffers much with a lame foot which renders them in a very helpless situation, when we lived in their neighborhood they were very kind & affectionate neighbors to us, & they Still remain near in our hearts, & are people whom I believe near the Kingdom of heaven — My H set the Afternoon at her fathers ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 11, Tuesday: The initial Vienna performance of the Piano Concerto no.5 “Emperor” by Ludwig van Beethoven, with Carl Czerny at the keyboard.
February 13, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 13 of 2 Mo// Our Meeting seem’d a refreshing brooke by the way C Rodman & H Dennis were conserned in short but lively testimonys. — In the eveng called at D Williams, a little while & set the remainder ar home with my H. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
February 14, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 14 of 2 Mo// The Mind much occupied on things of a serious nature. In the eveng called at Aunt Patty Goulds & found her complaining with a lame side. I hope she will get better & be spaired to us a little longer. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 15, Saturday: Due to tensions between France and Russia, and due to his pending divorce proceedings, Adrien Boieldieu wrote to Tsar Alyeksandr from Paris that he needed to resign from his position as Kapellmeister.
The United States of America claimed the Oregon Territory.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 15 of 2 Mo// Occupied at trade but the mind has been turned to look inward, & the life has been raised. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 16, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 16 of 2 Mo// In the forenoon it seem’d as if the life was low, yet R C & D B had lively & acceptable testimonies to bear —In the Afternoon things seemed a little better & C R spake a few words, nearly as follows “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the Dead that Christ may give thee life, & then when the Gospel trumpet is sounded thou wilt be susceptable to its glorious effects” Saw cousin Thos Gould at Aunt Marthas this evening & was very glad, as I esteem him much. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
February 17, Monday: Ellen Sturgis was born in Boston, daughter of the wealthy China trader William F. Sturgis with Elizabeth Marston Davis Sturgis, daughter of a prominent Boston jurist.22 From her poem “Life a Duty”: I slept, and dreamed that life was Beauty; I woke, and found that life was Duty. Was thy dream then a shadowy lie? Toil on, poor heart, unceasingly; And thou shalt find thy dream to be A truth and noonday light to thee.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 17 of 2 Mo// Thos Gould called to see me, & spent Some time in the Shop — In the evening I called at Aunt M Gs a little while ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 18, Tuesday: Carl Maria von Weber and Heinrich Baermann performed a private recital for the royal family in Dresden. Their public performance in Dresden was unsuccessful, Weber’s music being found deficient by comparison with Louis Spohr’s.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 18 of 2 Mo// Called at Aunt M Gs, & found her not Smart Mother R Set the evening with us —- ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 19, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 19 0f 2 Mo// Aunt Molly Gould fell & hurt her side this morning & was bled this Afternoon — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 20, Thursday: Captain Paul Cuffe sailed his Traveller from Sierra Leone toward the coast of Massachusetts with a cargo of African goods. Upon arrival, his vessel and its cargo would be embargoed because his last port of call had been a British port and the US and Britain had gone to war. In 1812 tensions between the United States and Britain were nearly at the breaking point. Once home, having just returned from a British colony, Cuffe’s ship was seized by customs officials. The incident necessitated Cuffe’s going to Washington to win back his brig and cargo. He was not only successful in this goal, but he also met with President James Madison in an attempt to gain support for his next trip to Sierra Leone. Cuffe was the first black man to ever meet on official business with the President of the United States. Cuffe intended to visit Sierra Leone once each year, bringing 22. Her sister Caroline [Caroline Sturgis Tappan] would not be born until 1819. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
skilled immigrants and needed supplies while exporting African products to cover expenses. He had purchased a house in Freetown but never intended to settle there himself, because, as he explained “my wife is not willing to go.” The war with England delayed his return, however, as traffic with the enemy became forbidden.
Carl Maria von Weber arrived in Berlin on his concert tour with Heinrich Joseph Baermann. He would stay at the home of the parents of his fellow student Meyer Beer (Giacomo Meyerbeer).
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 20th of 2nd Mo 1812// Our first meeting was pretty favor’d to me but attended with a doubtful occurance. — The first (Preparative) was short - but two friends asked for certificates -thus we go one after another, Some are removed by Death & some go to other places untill I know not but Poor R Island will be entirely striped of friends. Sister Joanna Set the evening with us — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 21, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 21 of 2 Mo// Nothing very particular to insert - Day after Day passes away & I remain much as I have been for years; —however I am not unmindful that time is Swiftly & Silently on the wing & that it will soon be finished with me even if my days should be lengthened to the age allotted man by Scripture ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 22, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 22 of 2 Mo// Went to Redwood Lybrary return’d the “History of Plants” which I had taken from there some weeks ago. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 23, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 23 of 2 Mo// In the forenoon C R spake a little acceptably. The Afternoon was Silent. I set the eveng at home. My H not well — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
February 24, Monday: Prussia signed a treaty of alliance with France. The treaty bound Prussia to allow the free passage of French troops and to provide 20,000 Prussian troops for use with France. Prussia also adhered to the Continental System.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 24 of 2nd Mo// Nothing particular to insert, except the usual rounds - The weather is very close & winterlike which has a tendency with some other circumstances to depress my spirits. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
Rosalind Cobb Wiggins has pointed out that while Friend Paul’s vessel was being impounded by the US Coast Guard on Aquidneck Island in April, he would be lodging at the home of Stephen Wanton Gould and Hannah Gould in Newport, and that this amounted to a social gesture in the society of that day that was bold even for Quakers: “White people who could afford servants considered African-Americans to be the lowest sort of domestic, scarcely educable and more like the docile creatures in their barns. People of Color could be lodged in the stable and fed in the kitchen, but not Paul in Stephen and Hannah’s home.” I do not find evidence, however, within Friend Stephen’s journal itself, that Friend Paul lodged at the Gould home for more than one evening, or that he slept in some supposedly available area inside the home itself rather than in an outbuilding, and so I wonder whether Friend Rosalind had independent evidence of that lodging — or whether she was here merely drawing an unsupported speculative inference. (Within my own conceptual frame of reference, I rather doubt that there would have been available a “decent” space within the tiny home to put up a white adult male overnight, let alone putting up an adult male of color, unless he were to doze sitting up before the fire in the front room.)
February 25, Tuesday: Opening of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
Robert Fulton left Washington DC for New-York.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 25 of 2 Mo// It is exremely [s]lippery walking & this Morning in coming out of father R’s door I sliped & fell my whole length into the street against the steps on my back which hurt my shoulders & ribs very much — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 26, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 26 of 2 Mo// I am better of my fall today, for which I desire to be thankful — This eveng visited the African School. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
February 27, Thursday: George Gordon, Lord Byron’s maiden speech at the House of Lords was in opposition to a proposal to impose capital punishment upon Luddites found guilty of frame-breaking.
LORD BYRON’S SPEECH
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 27 of 2 Mo// Our Moy [Monthly] Meeting is this day held at Portsmouth, I would have been glad to have gone, but such is the situation of my dear H that at present I feel most easy not to leave her long at a time. — Those who attended the meeting say they had a pretty good time, but suffered much with the cold in going & coming. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 28, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 28 of 2 Mo// I hardly know what to say. The day has passed, & to but very little account in any way. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
February 29, Saturday: George Gordon, Lord Byron’s Cantos I and II of CHILDE HAROLD’S PILGRIMAGE were published, inclusive of the line
Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow?
that would be so often quoted by Frederick Douglass in 1863 while he was seeking volunteers for the Civil War black regiments: Liberty won by white men would lose half its luster. Who would be free themselves must strike the blow. Better even die free, than to live slaves. I urge you to fly to arms and smite to death the power that would bury the Government and your liberty in the same hopeless grave. This is your golden opportunity. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 29 of 2 Mo// The day has passed as usual. & the mind in its usual mood ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
MARCH
March: The punishment of frame breaking by death was enacted into law by the British parliament. Meanwhile, in Nottinghamshire, 12 more frames were being broken, and 7 Luddites were being sentenced to transportation, while in Lancashire/Cheshire, a factory was being attacked, and in Yorkshire, about a dozen workshops were being attacked and machinery broken, and two factories were being attacked.
March 1, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 1 of 3 M 1812// C Rodman ministered unto us in both meetings, & In how not but his appearance was acceptable. I thought I was favor’d especially in the forenoon to know something of an opening. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 2, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 2 of 3 Mo// The Day has again passed with the usual rounds. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 3, Tuesday: Cuffee, a Paumanok Long Island Shinnecock Indian minister, died near Montauk, New York at the age of 55.
The US Congress passed the 1st foreign aid bill.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 3 of 3 M Each day produces so little, that is worthy of nore & my mind so barrab of Life that, I sometimes doubt the propriety of my waisting paper, but do not deel quite easy to omit it ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
March 4, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 4th of 3 rd M 1812// Nothing but the usual rounds. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 5, Thursday: Spanish forces laid siege to Cuautla, held by Mexican revolutionaries.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 5 of 3 M ?// Our meeting was pretty well attended & I can truly say that my mind was comforted with the presence of several of the youth who appear, sober minded & from their good conduct are hopeful, & I am fully of the faith that some of them will become useful members— ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 6, Friday: Aaron Lufkin Dennison, father of American watchmaking, was born.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 6 of 3 Mo// Nothing particular to insert. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 7, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 7 of 3 Mo// The day has passed pretty much as usual. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 8, Sunday: Georg Joseph Vogler and his student Meyer Beer (Giacomo Meyerbeer) departed from Darmstadt for a journey to München.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 8 of 3 Mo// In the Morng Meeting C R spake a few words & in the Afternoon we sat in Silence. - My mind was some what barran in them but not in so poor a state as at sometimes. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 9, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
2nd day 9 of 3 Mo// I am well aware that the enemy does in divers ways beset me & sometimes with sharp buffeting, but I am thankful in believing that the good hand is yet near me & does help beyond what I have a right to expect. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS 2nd day 10th of 3 M 1812// My Beloved H & her little son rested finally [?] last night & are comfortable today. I desire not to set my heart upon this child or promise myself any happiness in him. We have had a proof of the fallacy of such promises in the loss of our dear little Caleb, who I often think of & can scarcely help repining in seasons of weakness when I think of his very engaging ways. he was certainly a remarkable fine child -but it may be childish in me to say much more about him, if this is as forward & as engaging as he was it will be a renewed cause of humility & gratitude, which I hope my heart will not be calous to. - —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
March 10, Tuesday: George Gordon, Lord Byron published the first two cantos of his CHILDE HAROLD’S PILGRIMAGE. The sensation would be immediate and widespread and would establish Byron in the mind of the public. He would later remark, “I awoke one morning and found myself famous.”
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 10 of 3 Mo// I have today been made acquainted with some cases wherein the enemy is secretly & all most quite openly at work at the other end of the Island, on which account I feel Sorrowfull, & may an increased concern prevail in my mind to work against his subtilty in my own heart that it may be the more clean & qualified frallies [?] his shafts against others. - ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 11, Wednesday: A decree was issued in Prussia that “Jews and their families presently residing in our States and in possession of general privileges, patents of naturalization, letters of protection, and concessions were considered inhabitants and citizens of Prussia.” JUDAISM
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 11 of 3 Mo// Oh! that I was better. I feel the need of more life more of the quickeneing spirit, but am comforted with the belief that I am yet favor’d with that or the renewal of that which is necessary to the Souls Salvation. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
March 12, Thursday: The Spanish Cortes passed a liberal constitution in Cadiz. This would become the manifesto for Spanish liberals through a great part of the 19th Century.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 12 of 3 M C R was concerned in testimony in our meeting today. & on my own part may acknowledge that it was a season of some favor vouchsafed to my mind for which I desire to be thankful - Altho’ the mind wandered a little, yet it was enabled to keep the object in view ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 13, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 13 of 3 Mo// My mind has various ways been exercised & depressed on subjects which I have thought best not to insert here, Oh that I may be favored to keep the right object in view. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 14, Saturday: Fearful of Russian expansion, Austria concluded a military alliance with France, agreeing to provide an army for Napoléon Bonaparte.
Cirio in Babilonia, ossia La caduta di Baldassare, a dramma con cori by Gioachino Rossini to words of Aventi, was performed, presumably for the initial time, in the Teatro Comunale, Ferrara. This was a flop.
The birth of Friend Stephen Wanton Gould’s son, John Stanton Gould. 7th day 14 of Mo// My dear Wife has been sometime expecting to be sick & this Afternoon much indisposed but did not send for assistance untill near sunset & about 7 OClock was delivered of a fine boy for which I desire to [be] thankful to the Lord, the great giver of all good things. - This is an event which has long exercised my mind, & I can but repeat my thankfulness that it is thus far over. The Doctor was not in the house to exceed an hour, & my Dear H is as well this evening as can be expected- ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 15, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 15 of 3 Mo// C R spake in our forenoon Meeting. In the Afternoon we were Silent. My H & little sone had a restless night but have been as comfortable thro’ the day as could be expected. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
March 16, Monday: The Emperor Napoléon appointed his brother Joseph (King José I of Spain) as commander-in-chief of the French armies in Iberia.
An allied (Great Britain/Portugal) army reached the French-held fortress of Badajoz in Extremadura, Spain.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 16th of 3 M 1812// My Beloved H & her little son rested finally [?] last night & are comfortable today. I desire not to set my heart upon this child or promise myself any happiness in him. We have had a proof of the fallacy of such promises in the loss of our dear little Caleb, who I often think of & can scarcely help repining in seasons of weakness when I think of his very engaging ways. he was certainly a remarkable fine child -but it may be childish in me to say much more about him, if this is as forward & as engaging as he was it will be a renewed cause of humility & gratitude, which I hope my heart will not be calous to. - ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 17, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 17 of 3rd Mo// Our little son was very ill last evening & the nurse thought he was almost gone, but recover’d & Slept quietly all night. - I hardly think we shall be able to raise him, but I desire to leave the event to the All Wise disposer & humbly to acquiesse with what he pleases to lay upon me. — I am brought this morning under a depressing sense of my unworthyness, & Oh! that all uncleanness may be perged out. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 18, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 18 of 3 Mo// The young child & his mother had a fine night last & are this morng very comfortable. for which may render the tribute of a greatful hearts. — I have had the Company of my much lov’d friend Jos Austin for an hour or two in my Shop which has been very greatful — he also set a little while with my H this evening - ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
March 19, Thursday: The Spanish Constitution of 1812 was proclaimed in Cadiz. This was liberal in that it supported universal suffrage and a constitutional monarchy under King Fernando VII.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 19 of 3 Mo// Our meeting was pretty well attended & was comfortable to me — In the first C R had a small communication, & in the last Job Weeden son of John of Connanicut, requested the care & membership of Society which was forwarded to the Moy [Monthly] Meeting & as a ballance for that agreeable occurence, the overseers inform’d that they had treated with E W Lawton for keeping company with a woman not of society, so that it seems as if what is laid on with one hand is taken off with the other. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 20, Friday: Jan Ladislav Dussek died of gout at either St. Germain-en-Laye or Paris, at the age of 52.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 20 of 3 Mo// The young Child & his Mother again rested well last Night - the usual rounds thro’ the Day. - In eveng Called at Aunt M Gould. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 21, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 21 of 3 Mo// I feel a degree of thankfulness that My Dear H & little son are doing as well as they are. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 22, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 22 of 3 Mo// Last night I spent in Watching with Christo[pher] Grant Mason & in the Morng went to bed - In the Afternoon attended Meeting which was as bright as I could expect after setting up all night - D Rodman walked with me to Saml Thurstons where we took tea & set most of the evening —- ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 23, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 23 of 3 M 1812// I heard this morng that John Weaver of HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Connanicut has departed this life, thus we go one after another to our long homes, & the time will soon come when it will come to those who are now young in years ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 24, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 24 of 3 Mo// This morng while setting silently the Spring of life arose in my mind with much Sweetness & comfort for which I desire to be thankful We have now pretty much concluded that our little Son be named John Stanton - it is far from being my wish that he should be so called, as three names I much disapprove of, & John is not the name of my choice, but Aunt Martha Stanton in a letter from N York requested some Months ago & before my dear fathers decease that if this child was a son that his name be so called, which father knew & was pleased with — My dear Mother seems now very anxious the child should be called agreeable to his aunts request, which seems very difficult for me to countenance., & as I feel nothing of conscience about it, think best to acquiese with the desires of both Mother & Aunt ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 25, Wednesday: Publication of the Twelve Dances for piano op.44 by Johann Nepomuk Hummel was announced in the Wiener Zeitung.
Samuel Wesley and his wife Charlotte Louisa Martin Wesley executed a deed of separation.
Lady Caroline Lamb gave a waltzing party at Melborne House. Among the guests were George Gordon, Lord Byron, Annabella Milbanke, Rev. Sidney Smith, Lady Jersey, Lord and Lady Kinnaird, et al.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 25 of 3 Mo// The day has rolled away much as days generally do with me — Several friends went to Connanicut to attend the funeral of our Aged & Worthy friend John Weaver whose remains were carried to the Meeting house & after Meeting were decently inter’d in the Meeting House Yard I should have been glad, & thought of going but concluded as tomorrow is our Moy [Monthly] Meeting it would not be best to leave my Shop two days successively — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 26: An earthquake struck Caracas, Venezuela, destroying 90% of the city killing about 20,000. Almost all this death and devastation happened for the time being to be in districts supporting the revolution, with loyalist districts remaining for the time being pristine. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
March 27, Friday: Caroline Lamb wrote her initial love letter to George Gordon, Lord Byron.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 27 of 3 Mo// Yesterday toward night, Departed this Life at his house in Portsmouth HOLDER ALMY a worthy & excellent man, & will be a great loss to Society - His Ministry was generally lively & clear & I have no doubt hath been helpful to many, especially the feeble minded. - ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 28, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 28 of 3 M 1812// The day has passed with the usual rounds. - My H & little son are quite smart. May I be daly thankful ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 29, Easter Sunday: The initial wedding ceremony was held in the White House in Washington DC when First Lady Dolley Madison arranged the wedding of her sister, the widow Lucy Payne Washington, and the widower Supreme Court Justice Thomas Todd.23
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 29 of 3 Mo// The day has been exceedingly Stormy which has prevented my going to Portsmouth to attend the funeral of the much lov’d & Valuable friend HOLDER ALMY whose remains I understand were taken to the Meeting House where Our friend D Buffum & Wm Almy were engaged in testimony, & After Meeting his remains were decently inter’d in the burying ground near the Meeting house. He has been for many years useful & acceptable in the Ministry, & his innocent & examplary life has render’d him an ornament to society, he died greatly beloved by all who knew him, & his loss will be great to his family & society. - Our Meetings at home were but small owing to the inclemency of the weather, & tho’ my mind was somewhat on the rove yet, there seem’d to be a good degree of favor which render’d the retreat more easy when I detected my self thinking on unproffitable subjects.— In the Morng D Clapp Jr called to see me & was at Meeting. he appears to be a Sober Man ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 30, Monday: The allied army surrounding Badajoz began bombardment of the fortress.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 23. Since the White House had not yet been burned by the British, its stones had not yet been painted white and so it was not yet being referred to as “The White House.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
2nd day 30 of 3 Mo// The Day has passed with the usual rounds- ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
March 31, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 31 of 3 Mo// Another day one much as usual ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
SPRING 1812
Spring: The slave Tom who had been persuaded by the slave Celia to bash in the skull of his owner with a hoe as the signal for a general servile insurrection was captured and returned to Henry County, Virginia where he was quickly found guilty as charged, and hanged. Two other slaves were tried with him as accessories to the murder. The judge sentenced Celia to 39 lashes on the bare back and found the other accused conspirator not guilty. The trials of Tom and Celia are recorded in the Henry County Order Books.
APRIL
April: Samuel Taylor Coleridge began to reside with the Morgans.
Two London canal workers were taken under arrest as the one losing a bet was being hanged by the winner, as part of the bet.
April: In this month in which the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus was being elected to King of Clubs, a manufacturer was shot in Nottinghamshire, there was a riot at the Exchange Hall and more than 15 food riots in Lancashire / Cheshire, 10 factories were attacked and two demolished in Lancashire / Cheshire, and more than 10 Luddites were killed. Also, as the protest spread, two factories, two workshops and four houses were attacked in Yorkshire, and a manufacturer was killed another one attacked, and four Luddites were killed. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
April 1, Wednesday: Count Nikolai Ivanovich Saltykov replaced Prince Mikhail Barclay de Tolly as Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of Russia.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 1 of 4th M 1812// This has been a precious day with me, my spirit has been much tender’d & sweetness from several occurences. particularly in Conversation with my dear friend Sarah Fish who has been to the Shop & opened Some of her exercises [meaning trials and difficulties] in which I was led into near sympathy with her & enabled to say a little which was at least satisfactory to my own mind & I believe was encouraging to her - My spirit was also tendered bu a short visit from my much loved neighbor Samuel Towle who has been in affliction all Winter, having had a sick daughter & now lays very low. - I was also not a little tender’d by a visit from Cousin William Borden. - our conversation turned on days that are gone & some of our relations that are doubtless at rest & the various changes that we are subject to in this World ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 2, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 2 of 4 M 1812// Our Meeting was comfortable Hannah Dennis appear’d in a few sweet & savory expressions, then C Rodman Spake (I thought) with a good degree of Authority. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 4, Saturday: US President James Madison signed a 90-day embargo on British trade.
Jean de Paris, an opéra comique by Adrien Boieldieu to words of Saint-Just, was performed for the initial time, at the Théâtre Feydeau, Paris, his first production since returning to Paris from St. Petersburg.
April 5, Sunday: In St. Petersburg, an alliance between Russia and Sweden was signed. Russia gave assurances that in the division of the spoils of war Sweden would get Norway, and promised to send 30,000 soldiers to drive the French from Germany.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 3 [sic] of 4 M // Our forenoon Meeting was silent, in the Afternoon C R Spake a few words, with weight Visited the Work & Alms Houses with D Rodman - This has been a day of Much reflection on various Subjects. -& my mind has been de[ressed] with the prospects before me. - ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
April 6, Monday: After British and Portuguese troops captured, from a combined garrison of French, Spanish, and Hessians, the fortress and city of Badajoz in Extremadura, what followed was a plunder, rape, and murder of local citizens.
The Shelleys returned from Ireland to Wales.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 6 of 4 M // Oh! that I was what I ought to be. Altho’ I do try to maintain the conflict yet such is the stroving between flesh & spirit that in consequence of the predominance of the former the latter is often but very lean & barran. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 7, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 7 of 4 M // This morning a bunch which my mother had on her Shoulder worked out. it looked like a worm in a Cows Back & resembled thus [a circle with a dot in the middle] it was blue & red & I have no doubt was or is of a cancerous nature. what the future will be with it is uncertain but she says, it feels much better than it has for Months. — Rec’d a letter from Isaac Austin Dated [blank] M [blank] Richmond in Virginia. - ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 9, Thursday: At 9:30AM José Antonio Aponte and other leaders of an uprising of blacks in Cuba were hanged. His head in an iron cage would be placed on display in front of the home in which he had lived (heads of these other leaders would also be variously posed). THE MARKET FOR HUMAN BODY PARTS
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 8 [sic] of 4 M // Our meeting was silent & I thought my mind was favor’d to partake of quiet, altho’ some weakening things obtruded - this Afternoon, brought into serious thoughtfulness & feelings on various subjects especially the necessity of a preparation for the final chance - & the uncertainty of time. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 10, Friday and 11, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6 & 7 day // Depression has awaited me on various subjects ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
April 11, Saturday: When about 100 Luddites attacked Rawfold’s Mill in Liversedge, Yorkshire, the local militia killed four of them.
April 12, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 12 of 4 M // In the forenoon meeting D Buffum spake a few Words & in the Afternoon C Rodman. — Our Nurse went away this Morning wich leaves my H in quite a lonely situation with her little boy, but thro’ favor She is very Smart ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 13, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 13 of 4 M // It has been a very thick snow which has continued to fall from 8 OClock in the morning till quite dark in the evening. The trees & bushes have been loaded as in the dead of Winter with Snow, a sight I never saw so late in the Spring. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 14, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 14 of 4 M // The Snow of Yesterday has melted away very fast today - I called to see Aunt P Gould this eveng, found her poorly but better than she had been — Sister Ruth set the evening with my H who with the little boy are very smart. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 15, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 15 of 3 M 1812// My dear & much lov’d friend Philip Dunham has been in town, his company has been reviving & strengthening, I only regret that I have been unable to have as much of it as I might have done had it not been Town meeting day to voat for Representatives to the general Assembly & Governor &c which occupied my mind more than I could have wished, but believing that the present State of the Nation & of our own State, demands the best men that can be selected to fill important offices, I was induced to voat for those whom I really believed would do for the best. - And altho I with Several other friends attended the Town Meeting, yet I believe we were not influenced by what is called party principles, but the real good HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
of the nation. & party Spirit ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— I desire may be ever guarded against, for I am fully & renewedly confirmed, will ever prove a bane to vital religion, & in proportion as the spirit of party is indulged, in proportion will the pure spark of divine life wither & decay. — but still I cannot see it to be wrong for me in some cases to give my voice for mene to rule over us. for when the “Wicked rule the land Mourns.” My dear friend Philip dined & took tea with us ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 16, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 16 of 4 M // At Meeting father R had a few words to communicate. My mind was lead to look back on days that are gone & particularly to reflect on the tender dealings of Divine goodness with me & was humbled under a sense of my man7 missteps & short comings. - Philip Dunham was at meeting but sat in silence. —- ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 17, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 17 of 4 M // I watched last night with James Robinson, he is an Old standard of this town & intimate friend & acquaintance of my late Dear father. Setting up last night makes me feel very dull & hevy today Philip Dunham has been at the Shop a considerable time in the course of the Day, his company very sweet & precious ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 18, Saturday: The foundation stone for the third location of Bethlehem Hospital, London, was laid. The hospital would be moved from its Moorfields location to new structures at St. George’s Fields, and the 1st of its patients would be moved to that new location on August 24, 1815.24 PSYCHOLOGY
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 18th of 4 M // P Dunham went home this morng. his visit has been very helpful to me having been favor’d to feel the renewals of life from his savory conversation -
24. Street, W.R. A CHRONOLOGY OF NOTEWORTHY EVENTS IN AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGY. Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 1994 HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 19, Sunday: In Concord, the militia assembled to take part in war with the British.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 19th of 4 M // Amos Peasly & Benjm Fulsom were at meeting this forenoon. Also Hireanea Thompson. The two former of the State of Newhampshire & the latter of Smithfield Amos is a living & powerful Minister & Hireanea has a good gift & were both largely concern’d in testimony & Hireanea in a supplication — In the Afternoon they appointed a meeting at Portsmouth 3 OClock, several friends went from town & said Amos was largely concerned in testimony & supplication ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 20, Monday: US vice-president and former New York state governor George Clinton died in Washington DC at the age of 72.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 20th of 4 M // The day has passed with the usual rounds, & the mind occupied on usual subjects. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 21, Tuesday-24, Friday: Rosalind C. Wiggins has pointed out that while Friend Paul Cuffe’s vessel was impounded by the US Coast Guard on Aquidneck Island, he lodged at the home of Stephen Wanton Gould and Hannah Gould in Newport, Rhode Island and that this amounted to a social gesture in the society of that day that was bold even for Quakers: “White people who could afford servants considered African-Americans to be the lowest sort of domestic, scarcely educable and more like the docile creatures in their barns. People of Color could be lodged in the stable and fed in the kitchen, but not Paul in Stephen and Hannah’s home.” I do not find evidence, however, within Friend Stephen’s journal itself, that Friend Paul lodged at the Gould home for more than one evening, or that he slept in some supposedly available area inside the home itself rather than in an outbuilding, and so I wonder whether Friend Rosalind actually had independent evidence of that lodging — or whether she was here merely drawing an unsupported speculative inference. (Within my own conceptual frame of reference, I rather doubt that there would have been available a “decent” space within the tiny home to put up a white adult male overnight, let alone putting up an adult male of color, unless he were to doze fully clothed sitting up before the fire in the front room.)
At the Hanover Square Rooms in London, Palestine, an oratorio by William Crotch to words of Heber, was performed for the initial time (there was a capacity audience and the response was so positive that the work would need to be repeated on May 26th).
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 21 of 4 Mo 1812// Paul Cuffee has arriv’d from Africa & has passed considerable time in my Shop this Afternoon but such HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
was the State of his mind at present in consequence of difficulty at the Custom house about his Vessel that he could not into into a detail of the progress & Success of the object of his voyage. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 22, Wednesday: Friedrich replaced Viktor II as Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 22 of 4 Mo // Paul Cuffe took tea & set the eveng & is to lodge with us - he has related many interesting particulars of his voyage. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 23, Thursday: William Jones was clerk of all the courts of the county of Somerset, Maine.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 23 of 4 Mo // Our meeting was rather small & to me a very dull season — the last (preparative) was also Dull but the whole of the Queries were answer’d to pretty good satisfaction. — —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
April 24, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 24 of 4 Mo // Paul Cuffee is in town endeavoring to effect measures to enable him to get to Washington & labor there for the release of his Vessel & Cargo. he is procuring letters of recommendation, & other documents that may be of service to him in explaining the nature of his voyage to Africa & the minds of the people seem to be very open to render him all necessary assistance —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
April 25, Saturday: Georg Joseph Vogler and Meyer Beer (Giacomo Meyerbeer) arrived in München from Darmstadt.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 25 of 4 M // The mind of men are much agitated with the prospect of War which seems to threaten this nation, but notwithstanding all the appearances, I feel a hope that the Clouds will pass over this time - but the times are gloomy news has reached us of a most terable Earth Quake which has buried the City of Carackas in South America & many thousand Souls in HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
it. This certainly looks like the last times spoken of in Scripture “Rumor of War,” & Earth Quakes in divers places - but if the mind can be kept in humble dependance on that power of that Name by which the Seas when in great commotion are stilled, & the Quaking of the Earth may be Silenced, Sure we may not be troubled for in him is everlasting strength, & by his strength he will Sustain the Righteous, & by his Strength he will convert the Wicked. —————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
April 26, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 26 of 4 M // This Morng being pleasant my H & little son spent the Day with my Mother, it is the first time the Child has been carried out, he appeard to bear it well & has been very quiet all Day - When I carried [him] into the late dwelling of my dear Father it much affected my mind I missed his kind & fond attention when I used to carry our little Caleb down to see him & it brought into my mind reflections & feelings that I had one day when I saw him at Aunt Patty Goulds it was a few weeks before he Died — he was then very feeble & his countenance I thought was much Sunken & I thought it hardly probable he would live the Spring out — I thought then if he could but live to see this Child born I should be thankful, but doubts possessed my Mind & I was much affected with the consideration parting with him, allmost as much as when the time of final separation took place & the rememberance of him this day has lived upon my mind & is renewe’d fresh upon it with each day of my life. — Our Meetings were as large as usual C R had a few words to communicate. — After meetg in the Afternoon I visited my Old neighbor Saml Gibbs who lays very low & appears to be fast verging to the Grave - His intelects have much failed but he knew me & seem’d glad to see me. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
April 27, Monday: Succession of the deacons of Lincoln:25
Names. Chosen. Died. Age.
Benjamin Brown Aug. 20, 1747. April ——, 1753. ——.
Joshua Brooks April 18, 1749. June 26, 1768. 80.
John Gove April 18, 1749; was in office about 40 years.
Samuel Farrar Dec. 28, 1763. April 18, 1783. 75.
Joshua Brooks, Jr. Dec. 28, 1763. March 8, 1790. 70.
Edmund Wheeler May 6, 1784. June 1, 1805. 74.
Samuel Farrar May 6, 1784. Sept. 19, 1829. 93.
Eleazer Brooks Nov. 6, 1794. Nov. 9, 1806. 80.
John Hartwell April 9, 1804. Nov. 2, 1820. 73.
Thomas Wheeler Sept. 2, 1805.
James Farrar April 27, 1812.
Eleazer Brooks April 27, 1812.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 27 of 4th Mo// The day has passed as usual. Our little boy very smart but brother Johns little daughter Ann is very ill.— ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 28, Tuesday: Yorkshire mill owner William Horsfall was murdered by Luddites.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 28 of 4 M // Our dear little boy has been quite unwell today, which has caused considerable Alarm in my mind, & occasioned me to decline Watching with Jas Robinson. little Ann much as yesterday. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS 25. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston MA: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy, 1835 (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study. On July 16, 1859 he would correct a date mistake buried in the body of the text.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
April 29, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 29 of 4 M // I am laboring under an hevy cold & sore throat & if I am not better fear I shall not be able to get to Portsmouth to attend our Monthly Meeting tomorrow. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
April 30, Thursday: Louisiana became the 18th state of the United States of America.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 30 of 4 M // Altho much unwell with a cold & the morng quite rainy I could not feel easy to omit going to Portsmouth to attend the Moy [Monthly] Meeting. failing of company I took a Chaise & rode out alone. got to the Meeting house in season to meet with the School committee before meeting. The first meeting was Silent. In the last buisness was transacted with love & harmony two were rec’d members & one disowned. After meeting I dined at my much lov’d cousin Z Chases, found him & wife persuing the same rounds, & all things about there then much as when I was a little boy. I love to go there & allways shall while they & I remain in mutability ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
MAY
May: Robert Fulton and his family moved into a new New-York house opposite Bowling Green. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
May: His troubles at having lost his ship behind him, Lieutenant Oliver Hazard Perry returned to active duty, this time as a Master-Commandant.
May: Sam Houston returned to Maryville, Tennessee, where he opened a private school. The school was successful and he paid off a $300 debt.
May: In this month in which Britain’s Prime Minister Percival was shot dead by a bankrupt citizen, there was a food riot in Nottinghamshire and 2,000 additional British soldiers were sent to augment the about 2,600 who had already been dispatched to the district to quell this Luddite disturbance. In Lancashire/Cheshire, 6,900 soldiers were being stationed while a manufacturer was being attacked, ten Luddites were being hanged, 38 were being sentenced to be transported, and 18 were being sentenced to imprisonment. In Yorkshire, 4,000 soldiers were being stationed while there were arms raids and robberies by the Luddites. Another expression of a Luddistic kind, also contemporary with the Luddites, was Romanticism, beginning with William Blake and William Wordsworth and George Gordon, Lord Byron particularly, who like the machine-breakers were repulsed by the Satanic mills and the getting-and-spending of the past. (The identity was so immediate for Byron at least that at one point he was even moved to write, “Down with all kings but King Ludd!”) This Romanticism, and particularly its attachment to an unspoiled machine-free nature, was echoed across the Atlantic by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville, among literary HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
lions, and notably by Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau and their great heir, John Muir. Muir, one feels, would have been a Luddite given half the chance, and there is in his tirades against the developers of the West — “These Temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism, seem to have a perfect contempt for Nature, and instead of lifting their eyes to the God of the mountains, lift them to the Almighty Dollar” — the taste of the acrid anger found in the Luddite letters. ...What purpose does this machine serve? What problem has become so great that it needs this solution? Is this invention nothing but, as Thoreau put it, an improved means to an unimproved end? HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
May: Samuel Taylor Coleridge would be lecturing on drama at Willis’s Rooms, until a point in August.
Meanwhile, Charles Lamb and H. Crabb Robinson took steps to patch up the quarrel between William Wordsworth and Coleridge.
May 1, Friday: Hamlet Scrantom and his wife and six children arrived at the falls of the Genesee, becoming the 1st white family to settle in the area, to the west of the river, that eventually would become Rochester, New York.
May 2, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 2 of 5 M 1812// Altho much engaged at trade this Afternoon my mind has been brought under feelings which are comfortable, because they are a proof to me that the good Spirit is yet alove in me, & yet depression is underneath - ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 3, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 3 of 5 Mo// I have been quite unwell for Several days, & thought it was best not to attend meeting this forenoon In the afternoon I went. it was small & rather poor Set the eveng at hom, Sister E & M was with us. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 4, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 4 of 5 Mo// This morng my old Neighbor & landlord Saml Gibbs Died in an advanced Age, about 2 OClock ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 5, Tuesday: Ludwig II replaced August Christian Friedrich as Duke of Anhalt-Köthen.
Dies Haus was zu verkaufen, a singspiel by Johann Nepomuk Hummel to words of Klebe after Duval, was performed for the initial time, at the Leopoldstadt Theater, Vienna.
American slaver captains like La Coste of South Carolina, caught red-handed and convicted, were usually at the last moment the beneficiaries of “executive clemency” by the President of the United States. For instance, on this date William Babbit, convicted for importing slaves, was pardoned by President James Madison, himself a slavemaster (PARDONS AND REMISSIONS, I. 248). INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
3rd day 5 of 5 Mo// Many friends have been in town from Portsmouth intending with others to go to Greenwich to attend the Quarterly Meeting, but the wind has been so exceedingly high from the North West that the attempt would be very hazardous. They had been detained all Day & their getting up tomorrow is doubtful. — ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 6, Wednesday: Martin Robison Delany was born in Charles Town, Virginia, which of course is now Charlestown in West Virginia. Although his father was a plantation slave, the law was that the status of the child followed the status of the mother (for obvious reasons in this miscegenating era), and in this case this worked out for the benefit of the child as its mother was a free black seamstress. (As a child, Martin would play with the white boy, John Avis, who eventually would become the jailor of John Brown.) In search of appropriate education for their children, the Delany family would while Martin was a child move from Virginia to Pennsylvania.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 6 of 5 Mo// Our friends set off pretty early in the morng with an head wind & pretty fresh. - We hope however that they have arrived safe in Greenwich before night. It has been a day of much Stir & noise as it allways is on days of the General Election, but I think this has been as orderly & rather more so than common ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 7, Thursday: Robert Browning was born in Camberwell, England. His father was a clerk with the Bank of England, and although he would receive precious little formal education, he would be able to make extensive use of the books of philosophy, history, and biography in his father’s substantial library. His mother would teach him to appreciate music. He would live with his parents until 1844.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 7 of 5 Mo// Considering that a number of friends are absent at Quarterly Meeting, Our meeting was well attended, & Hannah Dennis was sweetly concerned in testimony to the refreshment (I doubt not) of many present. — This Afternoon Ateended the funeral of my Old Neighbor Samuel Gibbs. — We Spent the Day with our little son at my dear Mothers who is about breaking up living as she has done, & going to take the chambers & brother Isaac is coming in below. - The dear old woman in speaking of the change while setting at tea was affected to weeping, which rent a tender place in my heart but we are born to changes, & we must expect them, greater & greater untill the great change of all, which may I be prepared for— ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
May 8, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 8th of 5th M 1812// The friends who went to the Quarterly Meeting at Greewich have returnd & got to the Wharf before Noon They express much satisfaction & think the Meeting was much favord & a season of encoragement. Rowland Greene expressed a concern & produced a certificate which Greenwich Moy [Monthly] Meeting had furnished him with to pay a religious visit to friends in the State of Ohio, which was united with & the certificate endorsed ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 9, Saturday: The Emperor Napoléon I departed from Paris for his invasion of Russia.
La scala di seta, a farsa comica by Gioachino Rossini to words of Foppa after Planard, was performed for the initial time, in Teatro San Moisè, Venice. It was one of three works performed that night.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 9 of 5 Mo// I have this Afternoon Spent a little time at the Court house, the General Assembly have had before them a law respecting the exemption of Friends & others conciencious scrupulous of bearing Arms, which after Some debate passed by a majority of 27 - It seems to Make much grumbling among many that friends should be exempt & I know not how long the law will stand in its present form, I fear it will be but temporary. - ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 10, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 10 of 5 Mo// In the forenoon Meeting C Rodman had a few words to communicate. In the Afternoon Silent. — Cousin L Clarke took tea with us & in the eveng my dear H went up to see Johns Child which is sick. She also attended the Afternoon Meeting which is the first since her confinement. Sister Ruth took care of little John the while — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
May 11, Monday: Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, walking through the lobby of the House of Commons, was confronted by John Bellingham. Bellingham, a bankrupt who blamed the prime minister’s policies for his own financial difficulties, pulled out a pistol and shot the him point blank through the heart. (The new PM would be Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2d Earl of Liverpool, a Tory who would continue until in 1827 he would die of the most natural of causes.)
Londoners would cheer Bellingham as he ascended the steps of the scaffold. The hanging would be protected by 5,000 soldiers in order to ensure there could be no rescue. During the dissection of the corpse, the right ventricle of his heart continued to pulse for nearly four hours since the time of his hanging “and for about an Hour Longer, upon being touched with a Scalpel.” His left testicle would be taken to the museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. THE MARKET FOR HUMAN BODY PARTS
May 11, Monday: John Thoreau and Cynthia Dunbar were united in Concord, in a wedding ceremony officiated over by the Reverend Ezra Ripley. Marriages
Spouses Marriage Date Marriage Place
THOREAU, John & Rebecca Kettell Jun, 1797 Concord
THOREAU, John & Cynthia Dunbar May, 1812 Concord HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
John in later years Cynthia in later years
DUNBAR FAMILY
THOREAU GENEALOGY
Cynthia would have been a noticeably pregnant bride, since Helen Louisa Thoreau would be born on October 22nd, but I simply do not know whether in that time and that place such a thing would have been a scandal (at least during earlier New England generations, a bride being already pregnant would have been quite normal and expectable).
At the turn of the century rural women in Massachusetts had been marrying at over 23 years of age, three years later than their mothers (their daughters would be marrying, in the 1830s, at over 25 years of age, two years later than this generation and five years later than their grandmothers). Therefore the age of this bride, 25 years, was not at all unusual for the time and the place.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 11th of 5 Mo// The usual rounds of buisness & no peculiar occurrence ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
May 12, Tuesday: Ignacio de la Pezuela y Sánchez replaced José García de León y Pizarro as First Secretary of State of the resistance government of Spain.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 12 of 5 Mo// This Afternoon I accidently met with a book written on religious subjects which I took up & read a little in, whereby my mind was quickened & brought into the life, & a very agreeable season insued for which I desire to be thankful. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 13, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 13th of 5 Mo// Nothing to insert but the usual rounds of each Day ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 14, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 14 of 5 Mo// I thought we had a very good meeting, as to my own particular I know not when my condition was better, the roving of the mind was easily checked, * life accessable. C R had a few words of warning “Set thine house in order for thou shalt Die & not live” which I thought was solemn & impressive - The precious savor of life has also accompanied ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 15, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 15 of 5 Mo// Nothing particular to insert — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
May 16, Saturday: William John Broderip graduated from Oriel College of Oxford University. He would enter the Inner Temple, and study in the chambers of Godfrey Sykes alongside Sir John Patteson and Sir John Taylor Coleridge.
ORIEL COLLEGE
The Emperor and Empress of France arrived in Dresden accompanied by a torchlight parade. Also in attendance were the various German kings, of Saxony, Prussia, Bavaria, Württemberg, and Westphalia.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 16th 5 M 1812// A Season of precious favor this morng finished a letter to James D Ladd of Grancille Mill Virginia this Afternoon — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 17, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 17th of 5 Mo// Our forenoon Meeting silent. - In the Afternoon a few words by C R after Meeting father R & myself went out to D Buffum & set the eveng HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 18, Monday: Amidst celebrations by night and military preparations by day, the Emperor and Empress of Austria arrived in Dresden.
John Bellingham was hanged in front of Newgate Prison, for the murder of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval a week earlier. In the cheering multitude was George Gordon, Lord Byron.
Demetrio e Polibio, a dramma serio by Gioachino Rossini to words of Viganò-Mombelli, was performed for the initial time, in Teatro Valle, Rome.
Friend Paul Cuffe was in New-York while on his way back from Washington DC to Westport, Massachusetts. He wrote in his diary that On my Return Called to see Dr. Ross, a man that Resided 7 years in Jamaica in which time he Saw most horrible abomination inflicted on the Slaves being jibetted, Launced on a Plank Down a Steep Place Whiped Hanged Burnt and racked. Lord have Mercy I Pray Thee.
During this stop-over in the big city, Friend Paul went with Friend Thomas Eddy for a visit to the African School. There was a street encounter: P.S. I was traveling in the Street With my Guide he kindly introduced me to two Methodist preachers Who accosted me thus, “Do you understand English?” I answered them “There Was a Part I did not understand (Viz) that of one Brother professor making merchandize of and holding in Bondage their Brother professor, this part I Should be glad they Would Clear up to me.”
These white preachers, in the big city for a convention of their fellows, of course made no response to a person of color’s street insolence. Friend Paul was sufficiently disturbed by the encounter, however, that that evening he wrote the incident up as a letter. On the following day he would go to the convention of Methodists and make his protest heard, and later he would pay a call on the Methodist Bishop, the Reverend Asbury, in a further effort to discuss the pros and cons of human enslavement. RHODE ISLAND RELIGION
In Newport, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 18 of 5 Mo// Tho’ its seems as if there is nothing to insert, yet I feel most easy to say that times are gloomy both within & without both as respecting myself & things at large in town, State & the world. yet it does not just at this present time seem as if the devastation of War was quite so much to be feared as some little time ago —- O Williams set the eveng with us, on our part very acceptably.- ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
May 19, Friday: In New-York, Friend Paul Cuffe was sufficiently disturbed by his street encounter with the two Methodist ministers who proved to be unwilling to discuss the pros and cons of human slavery with him, that he visited the convention they were attending and made a protest. Later he would pay a call on the Methodist Bishop, the Reverend Asbury.26
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 19 5 Mo// I watched last night with James Robinson he lays very helpless & I hardly think it any more than within possibility that he may get about again — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS May 21, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 21 of 5 Mo// I dreamed last night that I saw my dear father dressed exactly as when alive but something shining in his appearance, it seemed as if he was walking down the back street to attend a funeral in the Neck & that he looked very feeble & as he walked my dear aged cousin Zacheus Chase was by his side & when he came to a place of some difficulty to pass, Cousin Chase would take hold of his Arm to assist him. Cousin Chase Also looked very well dressed & his cloths like fathers appeard to have a lustre —I thought my mind was much grieved that he should think of walking so far in his feeble state & was anxious to get a Chaise to carry him — This dream has been much in my mind today & thought I would insert it. Our Meeting was silent, & to me a season of roving, tho’ for a few minutes it did seem as if there was Good at work & might have risen into dominion had it not have been for the very unsettled state of my Mind - In the last (Preparative) A Sherman was reported by the overseers for various deviations. Uncle Saml Thurston dined with us & set most of the Afternoon with my H & little son, his company was very agreeable ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 22, Monday: After a vote of no confidence, Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2d Earl of Liverpool resigned as Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 22 of 5 Mo// Brother Isaac Moved into the house with Mother The change to mother is deeply trying. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
26. Perhaps Friend Paul would discuss with this Bishop the contribution to religious thought of the Reverend John Wesley. In his description of the Methodist character, the Reverend Wesley had insisted repeatedly that the heart of Christian ethics was love. He offered the following definition: “A Methodist is one who has ‘the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost given unto him;’ one who ‘loves the Lord his God with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his mind, and with all his strength. God is the joy of his heart, and the desire of his soul.’” –Or, perhaps, Friend Paul wouldn’t. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
May 23, Tuesday: Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s pantomime Der Zauberkampf, oder Harlekin in seiner Heimat to words of Kees was performed for the initial time, in Theater-an-der-Wien, Vienna.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 23 of 5 Mo// Much occupied in mind in many subjects ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 24, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 24 of 5 M 1812// In our forenoon meeting H Dennis was engaged in a very lively manner in testimony - Sister Ruth took care while my H went to meeting — In the Afternoon we were Silent — Abigail Robinson who has not been at meeting in eleven Months was there this fornoon, her health is better —— After tea I walked into the Neck with OWilliams. he went to see a man by the name of Champlin who is very sick & I went to see Jos Wilbur who is also sick of a fever. I was glad I went as he was desirous of making a Will, & gave me the minutes to bring to father Rodman. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 25, Monday: The destruction by earthquake of Caracas, Venezuela, begun with the shock of March 26th, was completed.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 9th birthday.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 25 of 5 Mo// Nothing particular to insert. The Day has passed with the usual rounds. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
May 26, Tuesday: Albany, New York’s Lancasterian School Society (which is to say, its board of education) was incorporated.
Luigi Cherubini resigned as a member of the Jury of the Académie imperiale de musique.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 26 of 5 Mo// Pretty buisy at trade. Thoughts & reflections much turned towards the Aspect of the Affairs at Washington. some hopes were entertained a few days ago that an accommodation would take place with England, but now things look more discouraging — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 27, Wednesday: Joseph Hunt died at the age of 63.
JOSEPH HUNT [of Concord], youngest son of Deacon Simon Hunt, was born March 1, 1749, and graduated [at Harvard College] in 1770. He was a physician at Dracut and Concord, and several years Secretary of the Massachusetts Medical Society. He died May 27, 1812, aged 63.27
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 27 of 5 Mo// I watched last night with Joseph Wilbur, which, has occasioned me a very uncomfortable day, tho’ I dont know that I feel worse than common, yet having watched so lately makes it rather more trying — Joseph is pretty ill, tho’ in the night I thought he was better & would probably do well, but the Doctor says he is worse today than yesterday & thinks his case very critical. — he conversed much in the course of the night & expressed his sense of short comings & that if he had have been more faithful to the Truth he would not now be so poor & destitute. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 28, Thursday: The Emperor Napoléon I departed from Dresden, where he had extracted promises of troops for his Russian campaign from the leaders of Europe, and headed east.
The Peace of Bucharest ended hostilities between Russia and the Ottoman Empire and set the River Pruth (Prut) as the European boundary. Russia abandoned claims to Moldavia and Wallachia but annexed Bessarabia. Amnesty and autonomy were provided for the Serbians but Serbia was still to be occupied by Turkey. This freed Tsar Alyeksandr to act against Napoléon.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 27. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study. On July 16, 1859 he would correct a date mistake buried in the body of the text.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
5th day 28 of 5 Mo// We hear this morng that Poor Joseph Wilbour is very ill & not expected to continue long. This is an hevy prospect for me & has not a little depressed my spirits, his removal will probably bring a hevy burden on me as he has appointed his brother Wm & myself executors to his Will Our first meeting was silent, the last (Monthly) was conducted with good order, no very exercising case before us. Anne Greene disclosed a prospect she had long had of visiting some meetings in the Quarterly meetings of Nine Partners & Stamford & some other meetings in N York Yearly Meeting - Hannah Dennis also expressed a concern to accompany her, which was united with & they set at liberty to open their Prospect in the Quarterly Meeting - My H was at the last meeting ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 29, Friday: A New York State caucus nominated DeWitte Clinton for the presidency.
Robert Fulton’s wife Harriet Fulton offered an entertainment aboard his Paragon.
The Emperor Napoléon took leave of Empress Marie Louise in Dresden and headed toward the front.
On this day and the following one Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th & 7th days 29th & 30th 5th M 1812// Occupied as usual. The mind taken up on various subjects of an outward nature ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
May 31, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 31 of 5 Mo// Our forenoon meeting was large, Hannah Dennis & C Rodman were concern’d in testimony & the London Epistle was read — After meeting James Mitchell & I went down to see Joseph Wilbour, he had sent for me the day before, but I did not hear of it till this morning just before I went to meeting -his wish to see me, was to communicate some things relative to the management of his family in case of his removal which he said he expected would soon be. I staid with him all the Afternoon, & left him with a ray of hope of his recovery ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
JUNE
June: The Reverend Israel Cheever died in Liverpool, Nova Scotia at the age of 90.
ISRAEL CHEEVER [of Concord], son of Daniel Cheever, was born HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
September 22, 1722, and graduated [at Harvard College] in 1749. He was ordained at New Bedford, but was dismissed in 1759, and installed at Liverpool, Nova Scotia, where he died, in June, 1812, aged 90.28
June: Nicholas Roosevelt returned to New-York with inaccurate records of his expenditures for the New Orleans.
June: In his capacity as chairman of the House foreign relations committee, John Caldwell Calhoun introduced a declaration of war against Britain — something for which this national chauvinist had been pumping since 1808.
June: In Lancashire/Cheshire, 38 Luddites were taken into custody for “oathing,” and in Yorkshire, there were further arms raids and robberies. Meanwhile, in Liverpool, a new government was being installed.
June: The Shelleys moved to Lynmouth in Devon, and Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to Lord Ellenborough.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge reissued a somewhat altered The Friend.
28. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston MA: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy, 1835 (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study. On July 16, 1859 he would correct a date mistake buried in the body of the text.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
June 1, Monday: President James Madison got up on a platform so he could be seen (he was shorter than Senator Paul Wellstone) and addressed the houses of the American Congress, asking for a declaration of war against England. The British practice of “crimping” American seamen was, he averred, one of the prime issues which needed to be resolved by “force of arms.” (Ah, force of arms. Other people killing each other while we watch. That should be fun.)29
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 1st of 6 M 1812// Joseph Wilbour appears to be no worse & I think hope may be cherished of his recovery. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
29. He was of course lying. He didn’t give a damn about this. After the war, the international settlement papers would not be so much as mention such an issue, which proves in black and white that this hadn’t really been any reason for fighting — any more than the welfare of black people would really be our motive for fighting a Civil War. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Table of Altitudes
Yoda 2 ' 0 '' Lavinia Warren 2 ' 8 '' Tom Thumb, Jr. 3 ' 4 '' Lucy (Australopithecus Afarensis) 3 ' 8 '' Hervé Villechaize (“Fantasy Island”) 3 ' 11'' Charles Proteus Steinmetz 4 ' 0 '' Mary Moody Emerson per FBS (1) 4 ' 3 '' Alexander Pope 4 ' 6 '' Benjamin Lay 4 ' 7 '' Dr. Ruth Westheimer 4 ' 7 '' Gary Coleman (“Arnold Jackson”) 4 ' 8 '' Edith Piaf 4 ' 8 '' Queen Victoria with osteoporosis 4 ' 8 '' Linda Hunt 4 ' 9 '' Queen Victoria as adult 4 ' 10 '' Mother Teresa 4 ' 10 '' Margaret Mitchell 4 ' 10 '' length of newer military musket 4 ' 10'' Charlotte Brontë 4 ' 10-11'' Tammy Faye Bakker 4 ' 11'' Soviet gymnast Olga Korbut 4 ' 11'' jockey Willie Shoemaker 4 ' 11'' Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 4 ' 11'' Joan of Arc 4 ' 11'' Bonnie Parker of “Bonnie & Clyde” 4 ' 11'' Harriet Beecher Stowe 4 ' 11'' Laura Ingalls Wilder 4 ' 11'' a rather tall adult Pygmy male 4 ' 11'' Gloria Swanson 4 ' 11''1/2 Clara Barton 5 ' 0 '' Isambard Kingdom Brunel 5 ' 0 '' Andrew Carnegie 5 ' 0 '' Thomas de Quincey 5 ' 0 '' Stephen A. Douglas 5 ' 0 '' Danny DeVito 5 ' 0 '' Immanuel Kant 5 ' 0 '' William Wilberforce 5 ' 0 '' Dollie Parton 5 ' 0 '' HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Mae West 5 ' 0 '' Pia Zadora 5 ' 0 '' Deng Xiaoping 5 ' 0 '' Dred Scott 5 ' 0 '' (±) Captain William Bligh of HMS Bounty 5 ' 0 '' (±) Harriet Tubman 5 ' 0 '' (±) Mary Moody Emerson per FBS (2) 5 ' 0 '' (±) John Brown of Providence, Rhode Island 5 ' 0 '' (+) John Keats 5 ' 3/4 '' Debbie Reynolds (Carrie Fisher’s mother) 5 ' 1 '' Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) 5 ' 1 '' Bette Midler 5 ' 1 '' Dudley Moore 5 ' 2 '' Paul Simon (of Simon & Garfunkel) 5 ' 2 '' Honore de Balzac 5 ' 2 '' Sally Field 5 ' 2 '' Jemmy Button 5 ' 2 '' Margaret Mead 5 ' 2 '' R. Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller 5 ' 2 '' Yuri Gagarin the astronaut 5 ' 2 '' William Walker 5 ' 2 '' Horatio Alger, Jr. 5 ' 2 '' length of older military musket 5 ' 2 '' 1 the artist formerly known as Prince 5 ' 2 /2'' 1 typical female of Thoreau's period 5 ' 2 /2'' Francis of Assisi 5 ' 3 '' Volt ai re 5 ' 3 '' Mohandas Gandhi 5 ' 3 '' Sammy Davis, Jr. 5 ' 3 '' Kahlil Gibran 5 ' 3 '' Friend Daniel Ricketson 5 ' 3 '' The Reverend Gilbert White 5 ' 3 '' Nikita Khrushchev 5 ' 3 '' Sammy Davis, Jr. 5 ' 3 '' Truman Capote 5 ' 3 '' Kim Jong Il (North Korea) 5 ' 3 '' Stephen A. “Little Giant” Douglas 5 ' 4 '' Francisco Franco 5 ' 4 '' President James Madison 5 ' 4 '' Iosef Vissarionovich Dzugashvili “Stalin” 5 ' 4 '' HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Alan Ladd 5 ' 4 '' Pablo Picasso 5 ' 4 '' Truman Capote 5 ' 4 '' Queen Elizabeth 5 ' 4 '' Ludwig van Beethoven 5 ' 4 '' Typical Homo Erectus 5 ' 4 '' 1 typical Neanderthal adult male 5 ' 4 /2'' 1 Alan Ladd 5 ' 4 /2'' comte de Buffon 5 ' 5 '' (-) Captain Nathaniel Gordon 5 ' 5 '' Charles Manson 5 ' 5 '' Audie Murphy 5 ' 5 '' Harry Houdini 5 ' 5 '' Hung Hsiu-ch'üan 5 ' 5 '' 1 Marilyn Monroe 5 ' 5 /2'' 1 T.E. Lawrence “of Arabia” 5 ' 5 /2'' average runaway male American slave 5 ' 5-6 '' Charles Dickens 5 ' 6? '' President Benjamin Harrison 5 ' 6 '' President Martin Van Buren 5 ' 6 '' James Smithson 5 ' 6 '' Louisa May Alcott 5 ' 6 '' 1 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 5 ' 6 /2'' 1 Napoleon Bonaparte 5 ' 6 /2'' Emily Brontë 5 ' 6-7 '' Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 5 ' ? '' average height, seaman of 1812 5 ' 6.85 '' Oliver Reed Smoot, Jr. 5 ' 7 '' minimum height, British soldier 5 ' 7 '' President John Adams 5 ' 7 '' President John Quincy Adams 5 ' 7 '' President William McKinley 5 ' 7 '' “Charley” Parkhurst (a female) 5 ' 7 '' Ulysses S. Grant 5 ' 7 '' Henry Thoreau 5 ' 7 '' 1 the average male of Thoreau's period 5 ' 7 /2 '' Edgar Allan Poe 5 ' 8 '' President Ulysses S. Grant 5 ' 8 '' President William H. Harrison 5 ' 8 '' President James Polk 5 ' 8 '' HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
President Zachary Taylor 5 ' 8 '' average height, soldier of 1812 5 ' 8.35 '' 1 President Rutherford B. Hayes 5 ' 8 /2'' President Millard Fillmore 5 ' 9 '' President Harry S Truman 5 ' 9 '' 1 President Jimmy Carter 5 ' 9 /2'' 3 Herman Melville 5 ' 9 /4'' Calvin Coolidge 5 ' 10'' Andrew Johnson 5 ' 10'' Theodore Roosevelt 5 ' 10'' Thomas Paine 5 ' 10'' Franklin Pierce 5 ' 10'' Abby May Alcott 5 ' 10'' Reverend Henry C. Wright 5 ' 10'' 1 Nathaniel Hawthorne 5 ' 10 /2'' 1 Louis “Deerfoot” Bennett 5 ' 10 /2'' 1 Friend John Greenleaf Whittier 5 ' 10 /2'' 1 President Dwight D. Eisenhower 5 ' 10 /2'' Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots 5 ' 11'' Sojourner Truth 5 ' 11'' President Grover Cleveland 5 ' 11'' President Herbert Hoover 5 ' 11'' President Woodrow Wilson 5 ' 11'' President Jefferson Davis 5 ' 11'' 1 President Richard Milhous Nixon 5 ' 11 /2'' Robert Voorhis the hermit of Rhode Island < 6 ' Frederick Douglass 6 ' (-) Anthony Burns 6 ' 0 '' Waldo Emerson 6 ' 0 '' Joseph Smith, Jr. 6 ' 0 '' David Walker 6 ' 0 '' Sarah F. Wakefield 6 ' 0 '' Thomas Wentworth Higginson 6 ' 0 '' President James Buchanan 6 ' 0 '' President Gerald R. Ford 6 ' 0 '' President James Garfield 6 ' 0 '' President Warren Harding 6 ' 0 '' President John F. Kennedy 6 ' 0 '' President James Monroe 6 ' 0 '' President William H. Taft 6 ' 0 '' HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
President John Tyler 6 ' 0 '' John Brown 6 ' 0 (+)'' President Andrew Jackson 6 ' 1'' Alfred Russel Wallace 6 ' 1'' President Ronald Reagan 6 ' 1'' 1 Venture Smith 6 ' 1 /2'' John Camel Heenan 6 ' 2 '' Crispus Attucks 6 ' 2 '' President Chester A. Arthur 6 ' 2 '' President George Bush, Senior 6 ' 2 '' President Franklin D. Roosevelt 6 ' 2 '' President George Washington 6 ' 2 '' Gabriel Prosser 6 ' 2 '' Dangerfield Newby 6 ' 2 '' Charles Augustus Lindbergh 6 ' 2 '' 1 President Bill Clinton 6 ' 2 /2'' 1 President Thomas Jefferson 6 ' 2 /2'' President Lyndon B. Johnson 6 ' 3 '' Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. 6 ' 3 '' 1 Richard “King Dick” Seaver 6 ' 3 /4'' President Abraham Lincoln 6 ' 4 '' Marion Morrison (AKA John Wayne) 6 ' 4 '' Elisha Reynolds Potter, Senior 6 ' 4 '' Thomas Cholmondeley 6 ' 4 '' (?) William Buckley 6 ' 4-7” Franklin Benjamin Sanborn 6 ' 5 '' Peter the Great of Russia 6 ' 7 '' William “Dwarf Billy” Burley 6 ' 7 '' Giovanni Battista Belzoni 6 ' 7 '' Thomas Jefferson (the statue) 7 ' 6'' Jefferson Davis (the statue) 7 ' 7'' 1 Martin Van Buren Bates 7 ' 11 /2'' M. Bihin, a Belgian exhibited in Boston in 1840 8 ' Anna Haining Swan 8 ' 1''
June 2, Tuesday: Elenor Logan was admitted to the Philadelphia almshouse, after she tried to cut her throat when her husband enlisted in a military unit.
June 2, Tuesday and 3, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd & 4th days 2 & 3 of 6 Mo// Jos Wilbour appears much so & an HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
hope is still cherished of his recovery. — Nothing in particular further to insert ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS June 4, Thursday: The Louisiana Territory was renamed the Missouri Territory.
The United States House of Representatives voted 79 over 49 for President James Madison to lead us into another war against Great Britain.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 4 of 6 Mo// I thought best to stay home from meeting to perform an engagement which I could not conveniently have done, & gone. This is the day which has been talked of or anticipated for several Years. One Nimrod Hughs prophecyed that on this day one third of the inhabitants of the World was to be destroyed by hail, & for several weeks & indeed months his book has been newly circulated to get monay by. it first came out about 3 or 4 Years ago. Many were so unwarrantable credulous as to admit the belief of his imposotion & became much terrified. one woman some weeks ago, gave up work & said she had enough to last till this time, & was sure she should then die & many others oeven people of pretty considerable strong minds have been allmost overset with this false prophecy in this Town & many other places. but the Day has now nearly passed & nothing strange or uncommon has happened. to be sure it has been cloudy, has rained a little & jas been very cool for the Season, also the Wind has been fresh ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 5, Friday: Grand Duet for the Organ by Samuel Wesley was performed for the initial time, at the Hanover Square Rooms, London by the composer and Vincent Novello.
June 6, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 6 of 6 M 1812// “Watch & keep your garments clean” is a sentence which I believe is not exact Scripture, or perhaps the same words are not exactly so form’d into a sentence in the Scripture but are the spirit of many passages contain’d in it. -They have passed much in my mind this Afternoon, Since news has arrived in town that Congress are endeavoring for war & that a declaration may very shortly be expected from them against England. I have felt renewedly concern’d that I may be kept clear of over anxiety, as to the issue, but to labor to keep my garments clean & watch against wrong spirit. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
June 7, Sunday: Walton Felch was received into the 1st Baptist Church of Providence, Rhode Island, Pastor Stephen Gano, by baptism. (His connection with this congregation would culminate on August 4, 1825 “by erasure,” which is to say, he would neither die nor transfer his membership to some other church.)
The Reverend Stephen Gano (think “Gano Street”) The Emperor Napoléon arrived in Danzig (Gdansk) on his way to the front and inspected the supplies stored there.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 7 of 6 Mo// In the forenoon D Buffum was concerned in a lively testimony. In the Afternoon we were silent. After tea took a Walk around the hill & down the neck with D Rodman went to Coggeshall burying ground, where John Coggeshall the first President of Rhode Island was buried in the Year 1747, the oldest Stone I have yet met with in any of my researches. —- ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 8, Monday: Prince Ferdinand Johann Nepomuk Kinsky agreed to pay Ludwig van Beethoven’s stipend at the same value as before the revaluation of Austrian currency.
The New York/Vermont border was finalized along a line run by New York surveyors Robert Yates, Robert R. Livingston, John Lansing, Jr., Gulian C. Verplanck, Simeon De Witt, Egbert Benson, Richard Sill and Melancthon Smith in conjunction with Vermont surveyors Isaac Tichenor, Stephen R. Bradley, Nathaniel Chipman, Elijah Paine, Ira Allen, Stephen Jacob, and Israel Smith.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 8 of 6 Mo// Matthew Franklin & Willet Hicks of N York arrived this Afternoon to attend our Yearly Meeting. — HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
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June 9, Tuesday: Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2d Earl of Liverpool was reappointed as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (upon a vote of no confidence he had resigned in May).
June 10, Wednesday: The Emperor Napoléon I departed from Danzig (Gdansk) for the front.
June 11, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 11 of 6 Mo// Our meeting was a good one to me, & I was made renewedly thankful in feeling the life sweetly revived, especially in the forepart of it — Father Rodman spake a few words on the subjects of Affliction, Matthew Franklin followed him on the same subject I thought much to the purpose. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 13, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 13 of 6 Mo// The toil has now commenced. Many friends have come to town to attend the Yearly Meeting. I already have been much engaged in going to boarding houses to arrange friends. things works wrong they wish to crowd together in greater numbers than I could wish & my mind is much exercised with it — Oh that I may abide in the patience. I long yea pray for patience & meekness. — I think this day has closed beyond my expectation Things seem pretty favorably settled at the Boarding Houses — We had to tea Several of our friends & acquaintances Called in at father Rs & saw my dear friend Micajah Collins, who has been on a religious visit to friends in Pennsylvania & parts thereaway — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 14, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 14th of 6th M 1812// Our forenoon meeting was not as large as common owing to the weather being rainy - It was very quiet Solemn & favor’d considering the number present — Several small gifts were offered in the forepart of it - then Our Ancient & beloved friend David Sands appear’d in a long & very uncommonly baptizing testimony; after proceeding midway of his communication he observed that it was many years since he was in that house & that he was so much altered as not to appear as he did then, the ravages of time were apparent in his appearance & he knew not as he was able to speak so as to be heard & HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
understood, but gospel love drew his mind with a strong cord towards the inhabitants of this land, that since he was in this place last many of his old friends & acquaintances had gone to their long homes. he had enquired after most of them found a few living & many gone who then stood as way marks & ensamples to the flock, & that he then stood as a monument of Gods Mercy, but should soon be called from this to another World This part of his testimony deeply affected my mind particularly when I reflected that my late dear father was well acquainted with him & often spoke of him before his death & enquiring with a degree of anxiety to know if he was not coming to see us He concluded the meeting in a Solemn supplication. - After meeting I spoke with him he remeber’d the family & when I told him my name he enquired if I was not James Goulds son In the Afternoon the meeting was very large & David was much favord both in testimony & supplication ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 15, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 15 of 6 M 1812// Our Meeting as usual began at 9 OC Deland appear’d in supplication, then in an excellent testimony. after several other small appearances in each [?] of which I thought was a degree of life the meetings proceeded to buisness — The buisness went on in the usual channel & Epistles from London, New York & Baltimore & North Carolina were rec’d & read. The London Epistle excited a few excellent remarks from Deland & Matthew Franklin. After which the meeting adjounr’d to meet at 4 OClock in the Afternoon — After dinner went to see Abraham Sherman with John Weeden to fulfill our appointment from Moy [Monthly] Meeting respecting his disorderly Walking. for my own part I thought I was much favor’d with ability to offer suitable council & advice, but alass I fear our labor is nearly useless. Our Meeting in the Afternoon was much favor’d, tho the Accounts from the variious Quarters were painful in many respects -Our friends Elijah Hoag Matthew Franklin & David Sand was very extensive & Powerful in communication endeavoring rebuild the waste places & encourage friends to press forward notwithstanding the many deficiencies he apprehended Truth was rising & would continue to rise if friends kept their ranks in rightiousness —all must rally round the Standard. — Many took tea with us among whom were my much lov’d friends John Caset & Daniel Howland ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
June 17, Wednesday: The United States Senate voted 19 over 13 to allow President James Madison, Mr. Shortie Pants, to lead us into another war against Great Britain.
Georg Joseph Vogler and Meyer Beer (Giacomo Meyerbeer) traveled to Nymphenburg to visit the Queen of Bavaria. Vogler interceded on behalf of his protégé to have the opera Jephtas Gelübde performed at the Court Theater, and for the Queen to allow Meyerbeer to play in the Court Concert. The Queen said she’d need to ask the King. Later, Meyerbeer was summoned to play in the evening. Last in a line of performers, he would play his Rondo in g minor at the piano. The Queen complimented him and asked about his compositions.
June 18, Thursday: Franz Schubert begins instruction in counterpoint with Antonio Salieri in Vienna.
Unaware of course that Great Britain had already rescinded its offending actions two days before, President James Madison signed the joint congressional Declaration of War. This 2d war of the United States of America upon Great Britain, which would take place over a number of years, is now denominated in our history books the “War of 1812” (evidently we spare ourselves embarrassment when we do not give this war an accurate name).30 –Not that any of this makes any difference (only a fool would suppose that nations go to war for the reasons they proffer)!
Upstate New York was woefully unprepared. Fort Niagara had deteriorated during the decade after 1800 as its garrison had become increasingly smaller. Many of the old buildings, some of them dating to the French occupation, had disappeared. The walls on the land side remained in place, but there was never a large enough workforce to keep them in good condition. At the outbreak of hostilities the Americans could muster only 150 soldiers to man this strongpoint. However, the British preparedness was not much better. The Napoleonic Wars in Europe had been sucking up all of England’s attention, with Canada on the back burner at best, so there were in this year only a couple of thousand of British regular soldiers in all of what is today the province of Ontario. The United States Army although far larger was composed mostly newly organized units consisting of untrained recruits. The Americans were confident, but without justification. Some of the bloodiest fighting would occur along the Niagara River. Captain Nathaniel Leonard would do what he could to improve his defensive readiness, while the corresponding enemy commander likewise concentrated on organizing a defense. Much of the summer would be spent in preparation as units of the state militia were activated and moved toward the Niagara Frontier. In order to keep the regular army and the militia well separate and diminish friction, the militia camp was established at Lewiston, six miles away upriver.
At some point during this period of intermittent scattered hostilities, John Thoreau would become the commissary for31 Fort Independence on Castle Island in Boston Harbor. Thoreau would make a note of this in his journal in 1850:
After October 31, 1850: ... My father was commissary at Fort Independence in the last war. He says that the baker whom he engaged returned 18 ounces of bread for 16 of flour, and was glad of the job on those terms. ...
HENRY’S RELATIVES
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 30. Interestingly, the federal government of the USA stated that one of the reasons why it was declaring war on Britain was the British embargo on hemp. After the Brits had lost this one, the analysis made by the Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington would be that their forces had suffered from a lack of command discipline: “They wanted this iron fist to command them.” CANNABIS 31. This is what we would consider similar to “running the PX” at a smallish current military base. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
5th day 18 of 6th M 1812// Our Meeting was very large. Anne Greene was concern’d in supplication, then Micajah Collins in an acceptable testimony, then David Sands in a very extensive & powerful testimony In the last (Preparative) David had a few close remarks on the subject of Rainess [?] At 5 OClock a meeting was appointed for the people of colour, many attended but not all of them by a very considerable - D Sands was by far the greatet laborer amongst them, Anne Willis Hannah Dennis & James Hazard had small testimnies to bear. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 19, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 19 of 6 Mo// David Sands had a meeting at Portsmouth today —We feel quite lonesome after so much company but however, friends of our own town & family feel as near & I think nearer than before. I love them all dearly. — I desire to be thankful that my dear wife & little son have been pretty well, & tho my wife has not been able to attend all of the settings of the Y Meeting yet she has kept about & waited on friends — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 20, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 20th of 6th Mo// My mind is this morning dipt into a sweet tenderness. Oh may I be thankful for it — The morning savor has in good measure continued thro’ the day - & finding my mind engaged to write a few lines to Hannah Pope of Bolton, complyed therewith & feel relieved. — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 21, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 21 of 6th Mo// In the forenoon our meeting was large. father Rodman was concern’d in (I believe) a living Supplication -In the Afternoon it was again - father had a few words in testimony — When the meeting broke - I found an handBill had been published in confirmation of the fears that has been long apprehended, that WAR Was declared by Congress against Great Brittan. - This is a Dismal Prospect.- ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
June 22, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 22 of 6th Mo// This is a gloomy day every mans countenance appears sad as he passes the street, bespeaking a mind saddened by the Prospect of the desolation of a War. — My heart is deeply affected within me, but know not what to do or which way to turn, dependence alone, is to be placed on the Lord, on whose mighty power I feel a little hope that things will not be as bad as is anticipated Things look no better this Afternoon. It may truly be said that the “Mourners go about the Street” every countenance is sad & every heart hevy — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 23, Tuesday: The news that the USA had declared war on Britain arrived in Boston and the Massachusetts General Court voted its disapproval.
Carlos Martínez de Irujo y Tacón, marques de Casa-Irujo replaced Ignacio de la Pezuela y Sánchez as First Secretary of State of the resistance government of Spain.
Napoléon Bonaparte arrived at the front at Alexota.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 23 of 6 M 1812// This evening Mail confirms, the news of War, the Act of Congress, signed by the President has come. we are no more in doubt as to the issue, the voice of Congress is heard in the language, terrific to the minds of the people Oh! this is a gloomy day in which we live, a day of sorrow & sadness indeed. — when & where it will end is beyond the ken of human sagacity to determine, we have no refuge but the Lord alone & in him we have as sure hiding place, if we put our whole trust in his Power ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 24, Wednesday: The unwieldy Grande Armée of Twenty Nations (Anhalt, Austria, Baden, Bavaria, Croatia, Dalmatia, Denmark, France, Hesse-Darmstadt, Holland, Illyria, Italy, Lippe, Mecklenburg, Poland, Portugal, Prussia, Saxony, Spain, Switzerland, Westphalia, and Wurttemberg) of the Emperor Napoléon, the largest military force assembled to that date, crossing the Niemen River near Kovno (Kaunas), entered Russia with the objective of intercepting the British navy’s main supply of high-quality cannabis for use as its maritime cordage. — England could not obtain such high-quality maritime cordage from the USA not only because of the state of war that existed between Britain and the USA at this time but also because the hemp farmers of Kentucky were using a “dew-rotting” process of leaching the resin out of the hemp fiber (as opposed to “water-rotting”). For the same reason the US Navy was avoiding the purchase of cordage made from this domestic hemp, and mostly the Kentucky produce was being used for bag fabric and as rope binding for the HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
baled cotton of the Deep South.
At the Middleton Colliery in West Yorkshire, England, John Blenkinsop introduced the public to his coal- powered rack-and-pinion locomotive Salamanca capable of pulling heavy loads of coal, replacing the labors of 50 horses and 200 men.
In Providence, Rhode Island, news of the War of 1812 was unwelcome, but the “patriots” organized nevertheless — organized to the extent even of formalizing and placing under discipline a group of “those who were exempt by law from the performance of military duty,” such as the followers of the Peace Testimony of the Quakers (evidently with the idea of obligating them to free corvee labor in general support of the war effort): 1812. The news of the Declaration of War with Great Britain was received June 24, and was noticed by the tolling of bells and displaying the flags at half mast. The majority here was opposed to the war and to the administration of the general government, but they promptly held meetings and passed spirited resolutions to make united efforts against a foreign enemy. The chartered companies were filled with new members, volunteer associations were formed, and those who were exempt by law from the performance of military duty, were organized into several corps, and officered and disciplined for service. THE QUAKER PEACE TESTIMONY RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 24th of 6th Mo// The times are such, as, is felt at the heart of every considerate man, every countenance continues to wear a gloom & as they pass the streets look piteously. altho’ the Act of warfare has not commenced, yet it has been declared by Congress to exist between this Country & England. Vast numbers of property is exposed on the seas & will doubtless be taken & much property in England will be confiscated which stares many in the face with ruin, & those of more indigent circumstances feel the strong probability of starvation, for the want of buisness to procure food to eat My circumstances are streightened. I have nothing but what I earn from day to day, & how I am to pass the coming Winter is HDT WHAT? INDEX
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yet a sealed thing. I can but feel very keenly at the heart, but am disposed to labor to think as little about the future as may be & receive the present blessing with as much gratitude as I am capable of - ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 25, Thursday: A day after learning of the French invasion, Tsar Alyeksandr of Russia wrote to the Emperor Napoléon I asking for peace and a withdrawal from Russian territory. Napoléon would not be interested.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 25 of 6 Mo// Being a very rainy day My H was disappointed of her intention to go to Portsmouth to attend the Moy [Monthly] Meeting - So Brother D R & myself took a Chaise & rode out together - We stoped a few minutes before meeting at the house of our late friend Holder Almy & after drying ourselves a little went to meeting Hannah Dennis spoke a few words, the A Sherman a few & then D Buffum a few — Buisness went on rather dully in the last but we got through as well as could be expected — We dined at Peter Lawton & on our way home stoped at cousin Chases where my Mother has been for a day or two on a visit. found her & cousin Chases family all well, & then rode home & was not a little thankful to find my H & little son had done well thro’ the day ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 26, Friday: The Polish Diet declared the independence of Poland. No other power, including the Emperor Napoléon I, would endorse this act.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 26 of 6 Mo// Our old friend & neighbor Elizabeth Whightman wife of Vaneline Whightman Departed this life in the 75th Year if her Age about Sun set last evening —— ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 27, Saturday: British forces captured Salamanca from the French.
The cargo ship Commencement, out of Black Rock, New York, was seized by the British on Lake Ontario.
When news of the declaration of war upon Great Britain had reached Providence, bells had been tolled, stores had been closed, and flags had been lowered to half-mast. On this day the Providence Gazette characterized the report of the federal committee on foreign relations that had recommended our entry into this war in the following manner: They reported in several heavy columns their malignant, hostile manifesto against Great Britain, and with gigantic strides and HDT WHAT? INDEX
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ostentatious swellings, had thrown down the gauntlet of defiance to John Bull, in favor of the atrocious murderer and incendiary Napoleon Bonaparte.
This Rhode Island newspaper straightforwardly declared the war declaration of the federal Congress to have been “a work of darkness”: We are now to contend against an oppressed nation gloriously struggling for the preservation of its liberties. READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT An act was passed at the January meeting of the general assembly in 1822, forbidding the sale of rum, wine or strong liquor within one mile of any meeting being held for the worship of Almighty God. Another law forbade the running at large of cows in the business portion of Providence between the 10th of November and the 10th of April, except on Sundays, and between 8 at night and sunrise. As Lafayette entered the State House on North Main street, he recognized and cordially embraced Colonel Stephen Olney, who had served under him at Yorktown and had been one of the first to penetrate the British works. For further details of Lafayette’s visit, see Z. Allen’s MEMORIAL OF LAFAYETTE, Providence, 1861.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 27 of 6 M 1812// The day has passed as usual much talk among the people of the effects & extent of the present War but few can see to the end of it — ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 28, Sunday: Allied troops entered Vilna (Vilnius), abandoned by the Russians.
The Polish Diet in Warsaw proclaimed the reunion of Poland and Lithuania.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 28 of 6 Mo// Father Rodman was concern’d in supplication in the forenoon meeting in the Afternoon we were Silent - I set a little while at D Williams in the eveng Sister Ruth took care of the little boy while my H went to meeting ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 29, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 29 of 6 Mo// The day has passed without any remarkable occurrence but we know not what to expect from day to day, or hour to hour. The minds of the people are filled with War some with the spirit of fight, some in an high state of alarm for the HDT WHAT? INDEX
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safety of their persons & property, & some seem to evince a disposition to be still & labor for a peaceable disposition, & center their minds on God in times of outward danger, looking into Him as their only safe hiding place — here is a spot on which I greatly wish to dwell, & may my spirit more & more recur to the source from whence true help springs. — Towards night visited Joseph Wilbour he seems getting better, & the state of his mind is truly precious. ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
June 30, Tuesday: Issuance of our 1st national circulating currency, US Treasury Notes, initially in the amount of $5,000,000, was authorized by the federal congress in order to finance President James Madison’s war upon Great Britain (Shortie wanted to be a war president, tra la). With the 1st Bank of the United States dead in the water, and with no provision whatever for internal revenue taxes, we would be able to finance war only through loans and through these innovative notes, which bore interest at 1-1/2 cents a day per $100 (except for the “Small Notes” of 1815). A total of five issues between 1812 and 1815, totaling $36,000,000 in denominations of $3 to $1000, would be emitted. These national banknotes would be fully subscribed and accepted by banks and merchants.
(These notes were blank on the back.)
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 30 of 6 Mo// When I first commenced this Book, things in the Nation & at home were prosperous & pleasant to what they HDT WHAT? INDEX
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now are we had then peace & plenty, & minds freed from the horrors of War. tho’ even at that some trials awaited us but they were far inferior to the present, yet at this time we have many things to be thankful for & I believe my heart is deeply sensible of it, for which I desire to be thankful to the Author of every Blessing. Stephen Gould Newport Rhode Island. -
[back of sheet blank; end of this volume] RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
SUMMER 1812
JULY
July: The British House of Lords rejected a proposal to come to the aid of the stockingers, while in Yorkshire there were further arms raids and robberies. Certain inventions in machinery were introduced into the staple manufactures of the north, which, greatly reducing the number of hands necessary to be employed, threw thousands out of work, and left them without legitimate means of sustaining life. A bad harvest supervened. Distress reached its climax. Endurance, over-goaded, stretched the hand of fraternity to sedition; the throes of a sort of moral earthquake were felt heaving under the hills of the northern counties.... As to the sufferers, whose sole inheritance was labour, and who had lost that inheritance –who could not get work, and consequently could not get wages, and consequently could not get bread– they were left to suffer on, perhaps inevitably left; it would not do to stop the progress of invention, to damage science by discouraging its improvements; the war could not be terminated, efficient relief could not be raised; there was no help then, so the unemployed underwent their destiny — ate the bread, and drank the waters of affliction. Misery generates hate: these sufferers hated the machines which they believed took their bread from them; they hated the buildings which contained those machines; they hated the manufacturers who owned those buildings. In the parish of [Huddersfield] ... [William Cartwright] was, in his double character of semi-foreigner and thoroughgoing progressist, the man most abominated. —Charlotte Brontë, SHIRLEY HDT WHAT? INDEX
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July: This view of Fort Michilimackinac was published:
July 1,Wednesday: The US government doubled its tariffs to help pay for its war with England.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 7th Mo 1st 1812 / Here beginneth a new Book, where the [whether] I shall be & what will be my state before I come to the end of it I know not. I may be in some other town & I may be in the silent grave, reflections on which are almost daily in my mind & sometimes hourly. — The times are now troublesom, War exists between this country & England, & my mind is almost constantly occupied on the subject, but thanks to the Almighty protecter & preserver of his dependant children, I can say that hitherto, my spirit has been favored to abide in the quiet, but am unable to see how far this state of quietude would extend, was I in the midst of fighting & carnage, which we know not how soon we may expect, when I HDT WHAT? INDEX
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reflect on that, the mind is sometimes turned to look for another place of abode, but I have a wife & child which would be difficult to remove, & I have a beloved Mother & three Aged Aunts, who are strong & Cords of attachment, that at present nothing appears, but to meet the fate of Dear Rhode Island, & Newport in particular, I love it, much & there are many in it, who are, to me, almost as a right hand or right eye, & yet as I have said should times of eminent danger ensue, I am unable to see how I [s]hould conduct & whether I should remove or not. — Every day produces some new occurrence of a calamitous nature. Yesterday & today it has been in rumor that J Banister had failed in trade & is like to ruin many. Sorrowful indeed My H spent the Afternoon with Our little son at Aunt A Carpenters. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 2, Thursday: While in Prague, Ludwig van Beethoven visited Prince Kinsky and was assured that his stipend at the new value will be coming soon. He received an advance of 60 ducats.
William Monroe, a young cabinetmaker of Concord whose business was not doing well due to the war, working in a shop which previously had been used by Andrew Edwards for the manufacture of organs, had the inspiration to develop a technique for the manufacture of pencil bodies. He had cut Eastern red cedarwood into slabs, had planed the slabs to a uniform 8th-inch thickness, and had made 6 grooves at a time in the slabs with a water-powered grinder. Into the grooves he had rubbed a pasty mixture of ground graphite and fillers. He did not fire his paste, but allow it to dry. Gluing another slab on top of this had created a block of 4 to 10 pencils which could be sawed apart with other water-powered machinery. These were the 1st pencils manufactured in America, and were 3/8th inch thick, and came in either octagonal or hexagonal cross-section. According to Albert Lane’s CONCORD AUTHORS AT HOME, on this date William was able to take his 1st sample of about 30 pencils of local manufacture into Boston and wholesale them to a hardware dealer on Union Street, Benjamin Andrews, and make a contract with this merchant to accept all he could manufacture for a given period of time. For Monroe, the perfection of this pencil-making machinery would be the labor of a decade. At one point during his childhood Henry Thoreau would labor in this Monroe factory, which would be manufacturing pencils until like 1833.
[T]here was a school for young ladies ... in Medford, and one of the pupils ... from Concord ... learned to utilize the bits and ends of Borrowdale lead used in drawing, by pounding them fine and mixing a solution of gum arabic or glue. The cases were made from twigs of elder, the pith being removed with a knitting needle.... [T]he writer [Horace Rice Hosmer], then [circa 1840] a boy of ten years, helped the same lady to make similar pencils from plumbago and English red chalk.... H. David Hubbard, living in the north part of Concord, made the first cedar wood pencils for the New England trade; but they were of little value, and but few of them were manufactured. In 1812 William Monroe, a cabinet maker by trade, pounded some plumbago with a hammer, mixed it in a spoon with some adhesive substance, and filled the compound into some cedar wood cases. Some of these pencils were shown to Benjamin Andrews of Boston, who was ready to buy, and encouraged Munroe to make more of them. Twelve days after he carried five gross, which were readily taken and paid for, and a new industry was fairly started. Munroe ... made the “water cement” or paste lead which was filled into the grooves in a soft state, and after HDT WHAT? INDEX
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remaining a week or more the surface of the pencil slab was planed to remove the composition which adhered to it, and to leave a clean surface for gluing on a veneer of cedar. The pencil slab was about 1/4 inch thick, and the veneer 1/8 inch and of varying widths from 4 to 10 pencils wide.... Eben Wood of Acton worked with Munroe in Concord, when all the work was done by hand. The logs of cedar were cut into slabs and veneers with a “two-handed saw,” by two men; planed by hand to a thickness, grooved with the spur plane or plough, one groove at a time, and so on through all the different processes.... Eben Wood ... saw a tool for cutting the points of shoe pegs, and by applying the principle of the circular saw soon had a grooving machine which would cut six grooves at a time.... A moulding and trimming machine soon followed; then a wedge glue press, holding 12 gross pencils took the place of the hand screws which Munroe used.... His machine for trimming the ends of pencils ... is in use at the time of writing this article [circa 1880].... He made the hexagon and octagon shape cases, halving them together, with similar shaped grooves for the dame.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 7th M 2nd / At Meeting few words were spoken by C R - when I first took my seat I anticipated a season of favor but roving soon took place & I could not or did not get settled again untill a few minutes before the meeting concluded — My Mother came home this morng from cousin Z Chases where she has been a week —This Afternoon I have heard a report which has given me much pain for a young man, a dear young lad, only about 20 years of Age, has had a child laid to him — Oh the trouble this will make for his father & family, & Society. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 3, Friday: John James Audubon was granted US citizenship.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 7 M 3rd 1812 / As to the Outward this has been one of the finest days we have had, the air warm but not warmer than was agreeable - had it not have been for the painful sensations excited for the young lad mentioned Yesterday I dont know of any thing that has occurd to interrupt tranquility — My Mother & Sister Ruth set the eveng with us RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Our national birthday, Saturday the 4th of July: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, or Hathorne’s, 8th birthday. CELEBRATING OUR B-DAY
In the area to the west of the Genesee River that eventually would become Rochester, New York, the family of Hamlet Scrantom moved into a cabin that had been built for them by Henry Skinner.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 7M 4th / This day (being Independence Day) has as usual been very noisy, many guns fired &c — Such seasons of tumult are very unpleasant, but no accident has happened RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 5, Sunday: Ludwig van Beethoven arrived in Teplitz (Teplice) via Prague to take the cure.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 7M 5 / Father R was concer’d in both meetings in a few words to the people. — After Meeting in the Afternoon went with D R to J Dennis’s & took tea. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 6, Monday: Ludwig van Beethoven, in Teplitz, penned a letter to his “Immortal Beloved” (now believed to be Antonie Brentano, a Viennese lady married to a Frankfurt businessman).
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 7 M 6 / Yesterday Josiah C Shaws son Philander In the [-] year of his age was drowned at Perrys Wharf. This melancholy occurrence, warning us of the uncertainty of time & the promised pleasure of any pleasing prospect. — Had conversation with J W... on the subject of his late difficulty, gave him such advice as I was capapble of & was glad to find him deeply sensible of the error he had fallen into. — Brother D R set the eveng with us. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 7, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 7 M 9th [sic] / Attended the funeral of Phlander Shaw at which was the greatest number of children I ever saw at a funeral. The children of the preinciple schools in town were there — After the funeral was over I went on to the Alms House to see a man by the name of Richardson who appears to have his brains turned with religion, or religious enthusiam, he talks & preaches continually & when I went to the door of his apartment he began to preach to me, he asked me if I sanctified the Lord my God in my heart. I told him that was a question I did not choose to answer him, he still went on with a loud voice HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
exhorting me to answer him, he still went on with a loud voice exhorting me to that effect - I told him it was my opinion that he talked more of religion than he was acquainted with, & that is he would be quiet & talk less he would feel more of it to flow in his heart & come to experience that it was an inward thing, on which he turned from me, set down on his Bunk & looked me in the face steadily & rather contemptuously. I told him I had a mind to come to see him for some time & to preach a little to him as well as he to me a great deal, he then took out his little pocket Bible & read some of the proverbs of Solomon - but after saying a little more to him I left him not supposing I had done any good, for tho’ he was very full of reproving others, he would not receive it from others with that meekness which he recommended. — There has been a report in circulation which agitated the mind of some that a large Fleet of ships was seen of, but it proved untrue. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 8, Wednesday: Allied troops entered Minsk.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 7 M 8th 1812 / My Mother, Aunt Patty Gould & Brother Isaac & wife with their little daughter Martha took tea with us this Afternoon. — I was particularly glad of Aunt Patty Goulds company it is allways greatful to me & grows more so as the time of final separation draws near - I may go first, but according to natures course her days are nearly number’d — Sister Ruth set the evening with us. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 9, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 7M 9th / I have no good reason for not attending meeting, but so it is I was not there. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 10, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 7M 10th / This Afternoon recd a preseent for our little son from Uncle & Aunt Stanton of NYork. it was a silver cup marked I S G which they have sent him for his name. Uncle also sent me a book entitled A Tour throu’ some parts of North America by Robert Sutclif an englishman who uncle brought over to this Countntry & has since Died, what little I have already read of it induces me to believe that it is a very instructing & interesting Work. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
July 11, Saturday: United States forces invaded Canada near Detroit.
The boys of the Boston Latin School, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, worked on the fortifications of Fort Strong32 on Noddle Island:
The great comet Flaugergues (C/1811 F1) had been invisible even to telescopes due to its position in regard to the sun (astronomers refer to this difficult portion of the sky as the ecliptic), but on this date it was rediscovered by a telescope in Cuba. Its tail was ten arc-minutes in length. SKY EVENT
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 7 M 11 / Spent lesure time in reading Robert Sutcliff, I think it an highly valuable publication
32. This is not the Fort Strong which would be active during our civil strife, as that one would be on the Long Island of Boston Harbor. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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July 12, Sunday: On what would become Henry Thoreau’s birthday, US forces led by General William Hull invaded Canada.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 7M 12 / Very soon after I took my seat in meeting this morning I found my mind coverd with sweetness & a season of precious favor ensued. Truth was really in dominion among us, people sat uncommonly quiet & silence remarkably solemn Abigail Sherman rose about the middle of the meeting with a few words then Ruth Davis & then D Buffum in lively & authorative testimonys & Ruth concluded the meeting in solemn supplication -Sister Rhodman took care of our little boy while my H went to meeting In the Afternoon father R Had a few words to communicate —In the eveng Sister Ruth & Joanna being there Brother David & I called at Thos Robinsons in the evening & sat a little time very agreeably. — Spent lesure time in reading Robert Sutcliff his writings are fraught with very interesting anecdotes, most of them very instructing & some very affecting. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 13, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 7th M 13th 1812 / Have pretty much reading Robert Sutcliff, he appears to have been a man of very minute observation, & I believe well acquainted with the opperation of religion. I take him to be a friend of some account in society as he mentions several times of meeting with committees of importance in New York & Philadelphia. He came a Passenger from England with Uncle Stanton & was well esteemed by him. The last time he came over to this country his family came with him, & he has since deceased & his travells in this land are published for their benefit. I understand they are in low circumstances. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 14, Tuesday: King Jerôme of Westphalia, angry at his older brother Napoléon Bonaparte, abandoned the Grand Armée of Allies and returned to Kassel.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 7 M / Finished a letter which I began yesterday to Micajah Collins - In which I wrote nearly the following — “What a precious thing is love, & I think I can say of a truth, that an unusual degree of it has attended my mind since the Yearly Meetg & indeed I do not think at any time in my life I ever felt a greater disposition to salute every one in it. — There was something at that time which left a precious savor & has not departed like the early dew, for which my mind is at least in a very good degree humbled & thankful & believe there never was a time when there was a greater necessity for every one to cultivate in their minds love towards one another. The times are very peculiar & we know not to what the present depraved state HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
of things will lead, there is much to fear, but amid all the recent talk & commotion in the minds of the people concerning War, I have again thankfully to acknowledge that my mind hath been preserved remarkably in the quiet, yet how I should retain this quietude in seasons of closer trials, when surrounded by an Army & perhaps bullets flying, I am unable to say. I know I am not mine own or my brothers keeper, & can only (by Divine help) pray for the preservation of either. nothing that we can do of ourselves will avail anything, & if we can be favor’d to pray in the living faith, prayer will be as effectual in these as in the Days of the prophets & Apostles, in this true & living faith. I feel renewedly concern’d to abide & to increase, believing as Daniel Anthony once told us, that if it is suffered to decrease in the mind, the enemy will step in and jostle in proportion as we let go our hold, thus many good beginnings have been quite overthrown by that old deceiver. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 15, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 15 of 7 M 1812 / As I have often said of late the times are very gloomy. In addition to things of a Public nature I have heard that Edward Senter son of the late Doctor Isaac Senter has been very Distracted for several days. Some time ago he attempted to put an end to his existence but got about again & was pretty consistent & heard of the decease of his grandfather & that he left him considerable property, but the latter proving untrue I suppose it proved more than he could bear & left him quite distracted for several days & was this Afternoon carried to the Alms House.— Thus we have an example of an inworld & irreligious education, his & mine lived adjoining neighbours & I had an opportunity of knowing the particulars of his youthful race, his father was a professor & openly avowed Deist, & encouraged his children in loose conduct, tho’ he pretended to plead for morality, yet in his own example was such, & his attention to his children so small that they took great Libertys & were very wicked, & the fate of the family has been very remarkable. He first lost a sin at sea — the father next died himself of a consumption & apparantlly in an obdurate state his wife was a clever woman & good neighbour & desires I believe that things were different in the family, but she poor woman, soon after her husbands deacease was taken suddenly Ill in Providence & Died there. Next Horace was shot in a duel at Savannah which was the means of familys being broken up entirely & the remaining children put to board. The two daughters are somewhat hopeful the two remaining sons Nathaniel & Edward alas for them Edw in the situation above described & Nathl at present a infidel no hopes of his being better, a family educated as they were can never expect to florish long. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 16, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: HDT WHAT? INDEX
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5th day 7 M 16th 1812 / Yesterday & the day before our dear little son was quite sick, & I was much alarmed about him, but this morning he seems much better, for which I desire to be thankful, to be obliged to part with him would indeed be a keen stroke, but I dare not crave to strongly for him to be continued as the Lord but knows what is best for us. — Our meeting was solid & solemn, but I thought my mind was not as much quickened at some seasons Father Rodman & Ruth Davis bore short testimonys Saw James Hosier this eveningn he has been to Ohio & has seen Rowse & Mary Taylor, he gives a more favorable account of their situation than we have heard. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 17, Friday: At this point during the 1812-1815 war with Great Britain, the USS Constitution escaped from a squadron of seven British ships.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 7 M 17th / Our dear little son had a very distressed night last, but is much more smart & brisk this morning than we had any right to expect - he has continued well thro’ the day & I desire to be thankful for it. — Father & Mother Rodman & Sarah Earl set the evening with us.
July 18, Saturday: Caleb Goldsmith Forshey was born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, a son of John Sire Forshey (September 10, 1777-October 1857) and Elizabeth Monroe Forshey (circa 1778-October 1855). He would spend his childhood in Ohio, being educated in the local schools of Norwich, and then enter Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio as a part-time student.
The Alliance of Orebro combined Russia, Sweden, and Great Britain.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 7th M 18th / Nothing new to insert, things as it respects my own particular & the nation at large are pretty much as usual. -I am often hevy hearted when looking over the prospects before us. War with its attendant trains of honour stairs us in the face we know not now soon our peaceable habitations may be disturbed with the sound of guns & Armed Men in array against each other, May the Lord in mercy avert these calamities & draw our minds to look unto him for succor in every condition. — I have thankfully to acknowledge that our dear little boy has been very smart his the Day — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
July 19, Sunday: While taking the cure at Teplitz (Teplice), Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe met for the initial time. Beethoven will would on August 9th, “Goethe delights far too much in the court atmosphere. Far more than was becoming a poet.” Goethe would write on September 2d, “His talent amazed me; unfortunately he was an utterly untamed personality, who was not altogether in the wrong in holding the world to be detestable but surely does not make it any the more enjoyable for himself or others by his attitude.”
At Sackets Harbor on the New York shore of Lake Ontario, the Canadian Provincial Marine Fleet attempted to recover its schooner Lord Nelson but was driven off.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 7 M 19th / Silent meetings, the forenoon was a pretty good one to me — between meetings Meribeth Easton was buried, She was the Widow of Walter Easton, tho’ she retaind a right of membership, her memory is very precious
July 20, Monday: Public opinion in Rhode Island was so decidedly opposed to the War of 1812 that, on this night, a small schooner that had been being fitted out in Providence for a war privateer was taken down the river and scuttled. READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 7 M 20th / Saw an experiment of a DIVING BELL by a man who went to the bottom of the Water at the head of long wharf & staid 34 minutes I did not get there untill after he had been down some time but I saw him come up. Set the eveng at home our little boy was not very well. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 21, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 7th 21 1812 / I am brought under exercise which has touched a quick place in my mind an awful period has arrived. This afternoon the different Military companies are to meet to draft their quotas of men required by the government for the defence of the state. & several are liable to the draft for whom I feel deeply concerned. & the Prayer of my heart is that they may be this time spared. - Since wrighting the foregoing my mind has been greatly relieved JW has been in & told me that neither of the young men alluded to above were drawn out, for which my heart is thankful. They were young men who I have no doubt are concientiously scrupulous of bearing Arms, but not shielded by Society, except one who from peculiar circusmstances the Clerk declined giving him a certificate, tho’ in my judgement his reasons for declining were insufficient Abijah Winton of Salem took tea with us. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
July 22, Wednesday: French forces were routed by the British and Portuguese south of Salamanca, opening the way to Madrid.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 7 M 22 / Drums fifes & Guns are daily heard. a company in uniform are this moment passing they are marching about trying to induce others to enlist with them — Oh! what dismal effects on the minds of the people has War. Well indeed it must be so, for sacred writ declares that it cometh of Mens lusts, & when men are given up to follow their own lusts wether it be in one thing or another, what poor depraved creatures we are, & when War is the rage, how does it tend to demoralise mankind.- My heart is sadened at the prospect & prayer often raised that the days of this calamity may be shortened. — I omitted to particularise a matter yesterday which has dwelt much on my mind since. — In the Afternoon a lad came into the shop & told me that from particular circumstances the Clerk of this meeting has refused to grant his brother a certificate, which would have exempted him from a draft in the Militia, & it was then too late for me to see the Clerk on the subject. — & I thought to myself there is nothing to be done but to pray that he may not be drafted this time, & such feelings attended as begot earnest intercessions that he might not be, & as my mind was thus engaged it seemed as if a living faith arose that he would not -& when I was informed that he was not it seemed as if I was renewedly confirmed in the assurance of Christ to his desciples. Whatsoever ye ask in faith Shall be granted Reced a letter from Lewis L Clarke containing much good matter. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 23, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 7th M 23rd 1812 / Our meeting was pretty well attended C R spake a few words. When the Queries were read in the Preparative, the one respecting property taken in War fastened on my mind & I was brought under exercise, which induced me to make a few observations calling the minds of friends to a carefulness with respect to being concerned in the purchase of goods that might be brought in by Privateers. which was followed by a few seasonable remarks by D Buffum & A Mitchell Sister Mary took care of the little boy while my H went to Meeting This afternoon recd a letter from Hannah Pope dated 16th inst which was very agreeable, he situation has claimed my sympathy many times & particularly at the last Yearly Meeting, & soon after he return home I felt a disposition to write her & accordingly did.- Aunt Patty Gould Set the eveng with us. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
July 24, Friday: Tsar Alyeksandr made a public appeal in Moscow for assistance from every ablebodied Russian.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 7th M 24th / Nothing worth inserting. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 25, Saturday: Spain reasserted its power in Venezuela. Revolutionary leader Francisco de Miranda surrendered his troops to the Spanish.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 7 M 25 / I am going presently to Narragansett to attend to some buisness at Cousin Silas Caseys. Arrived at Narragansett before dinner. Dined at cousin P Gardiners & after dinner went with cousin L Clarke to cousin Caseys, compleated my buisness & took tea there my aunt was very agreeable found there an old relation whom I never saw but once & that when I was a boy, it was cousin Caseys Sister [—] Gardiner She appeared to me to be a very meek spirited woman, & while sitting with her my spirit was not a little affected. she is 80 years of age has gone thro’ much affliction in this World & now appeard to be much refined & I believe will shortly be taken to REST — After tea we returned to cousin Gardiners & lodged. —next morning I went to Meeting in So Kingston where at Present is a very comfortable & thriving little gathering — After meeting Rode with Cousin Lewis & Cousin Patty Hazard to her home & dined spent the Afternoon & took tea, found cousin John Hazard in Poor health & think he is wasting away, but may continue some time in mutability - towards night we returned to Cousin Gardiners & lodged next morning being 2nd of the week I rose early & caught the ferry home & found my Dear H & little boy pretty well. —but heard that my dear Aunt Martha Gould is more unwell than she has been. — In the eveng walked to see Aunt Martha found her very poorly but sitting up. — She set the eveng with us last 5th day & if it should be the last I shouldnt be disappointed. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 26, Sunday: Franz Schubert sang as chorister in the Imperial Chapel for the final time. He was entering adolescence and his voice has broken. He marked the occasion by writing in the alto score of Peter Winter’s Mass no.1 “Schubert, Franz, crowed for the last time, 26 July 1812.” He would begin to devote his energies to composing church music.
Fire destroyed a good part of the city of Baden, southwest of Vienna. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
July 27, Monday: Ludwig van Beethoven left Teplitz (Teplice) and would never seen Johann Wolfgang von Goethe again.
July 28, Tuesday: When Allied forces reached Vitebsk west of Moscow, they found the city vacant.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 7 M 28th 1812 / This morng I called early to see my dear Aunt Martha. I found her sitting up & she thought rather more comfortable than yesterday - I conceived her ease quite alarming, & have requested Dr Easton to visit her & try to help her a little; tho’ there appears no expectation of her ever being well, yet she may be kept along for some time, her life is of importance to her sisters. She has been her whole life time a care taker of them & her removal will be a severe shock, but I have no doubt that when ever it pleases the Lord to cut the slender thread of time, her change will be from a life of care & anxiety to one of happiness forever — She hath been ever since my time a religious & faithful Woman, & to her councul [sic] & example I owe much. in my childhood I lived with her several years & her care & tender concern for my present & future wellfare was obvious then, & has continued to the present day. One instance of her faithfulness to religious scruples was so impressive in my mind at the time, that I have not forgotten it tho’ a long time ago, & has been frequently revived since the present War & privateers have been fitting out, - When I was quite a boy, a Spanish prize was sent into this port by some of the then contending powers & the property sold, by some means a rare & delicious nut fell into my hands that came in the prise. I carried some of them to her prepared for eating, with which she seemed much pleased & was going to eat some, but at that moment was informed, either by me or some one standing by, which I do not recollect, of where they came from. She immediately declined touching them & altho’ I labord hard to induce her to partake of them, yet I could not suceed. — her firmness in declining was very impressive in my feelings, & the savor of it has never entirely left me. — Our dear little boy was very well & playful in the forenoon but in the Afternoon was very feverish & sick, & continued so thro’ the evening - RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 29, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 7 M 29 1812 / Our little boy was some restless last night, but rested much better than we expected when we went to bed. he however is not much better this morning. — Aunt Patty Gould much as yesterday Our little boy seems much better this evening, for which I desire to be thankful. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
July 30, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 7th M 30th / Our little boy continues better, seems quite pert & lively this morning. In our meeting which was Our Monthly meeting held in town, Anne Greene & D Buffum were Labourers in the Gospel. — In the last we had ample scope for the exercise of patience, several matters of the lesser importance was disposed of - & Certificates were granted Anne Greene & Hannah Dennis to pay a religious visit to friends in NYork State particularly the Quarterly Meetings of Stamford & Nine Partners. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
July 31, Friday: One final telescopic observation of the great comet Flaugergues (C/1811 F1) was accomplished, as it was entering the constellation of Capricornus. The astronomer Wisniewsky described it as a faint yellowish nebulosity with a diameter of about an arc-minute and a half, without a detectable tail. SKY EVENT
Francis H. Gregory sallied out of Sackets Harbor, New York hid three gigs among the Thousand Islands and captured a British ship. He then needed to burn his prize in order to avoid its recaptured by a British gunboat.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 7 M 31st / Our little boy being very smart & well we spent the day at My Mothers with him. — Aunt Gould some better RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
AUGUST
August: The 38 “oathers” who had been arrested in June in Lancashire/Cheshire were acquitted. Meanwhile, in Yorkshire, at least three food riots were taking place.
August 1, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 8th M 1st 1812 / Aunt P Gould much as yesterday. Our little boy pretty smart but my H poorly — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 2, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 8 M 2 / In the forenoon meeting H Dennis had a considerable to communicate twice, father had little once. In the Afternoon we were silent. after meeting Went with Br D R & took tea with Saml Thurston. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
August 3, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 8 M 3rd / The heart sickens & is very sad at the prospect of things in the nation. an hand Bill has been printed in town this Afternoon giving an account of a shocking Mob in Baltimore wherein some were killed & many wounded. Oh! Alass what are we coming to — In these times of calamity, the mind has no safety but in its God & may we so conduct in times of tranquility as in the Season of tumult & the clashing of the Potsherds to look unto him with assurance that He will help us. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 4, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 8th M 4th / Our friend John Casey & several others have come down to Quarterly Meeting I was glad to see them all but the sight of our dear old friend J Casey was very salutary. — John Casey & Loyd Greene paid us a visit this evening which was very greatful.— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 5, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 8th M 5th / Friends from the Narragansett county have come over pretty thick this Afternoon to attend the Quarterly Meeting. I am very glad to see them. it always very pleasantly Salutes my feeliings to see them riding by at such a public time RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 6, Thursday: The allied (Great Britain/Portugal) army began its march from Valladolid to Madrid.
Ludwig van Beethoven performed a concert, along with Giovanni Battista Polledro, in Karlsbad (Karoly Vary) to benefit the victims of the fire in Baden of July 26th.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 8th M 6th 1812 / My dear H could not leave the little boy to go to Portsmouth to attend the Quarterly Meeting held there this day, so Sister Ruth went with me in A Chaise The first meeting was Solid & but little Preaching soon after it was settled J Greene had a few words to communicate, which I thought sound & not unsavory. Then a long pause of more than an hour ensued, in which I thought our dear friend J Casey might (from the exercise he appeard under) have communicated something that would have benefited the meeting — The next after J Greene was Hannah Dennis, who was very Sweet & savory. The next was A...C... a friend from S Kingston who I believe is generally well aapproved in his own meeting, but made a most miserable & HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
feeble fight in the Quarterly Meeting but I hope did not much hurt. —the meeting ended — In the last we had much buisness. The Queries & answers drew forth many pertinent & seasonable remarks especially That concerning our testimony respecting War - Matthew Franklin had much to say & much of it very agreeable to my feelings — Moses Brown very feelingly made a remark to this effect speaking of the beauty of our principles. he said Methinks the contrast between a similar number of Wariours to the number present would be very Striking, one sitting in solemnity & in peaceable spirit, the other all in jar & confusion, which may be seen in all who are in the spirit of it & traced down the the councils that declare it — I have not done the remark justice, but that is the substance of it. — The certificates of Anne Greene & Hannah Dennis were endorsed & they set at liberty to proceed on their journey After Meeting we dined at Anna Anthonys & then rode home RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 7, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 7 of 8 M 1812 / At 4 OClock this Afternoon Matthew Franklin appointed a meeting for the inhabitants of this town, which prov’d to good sattisfaction — Matthew was favor’d to explain the inconsistency of War with the christian religion, in a clear point of view, but it did not appear to be so open a time as some, yet he appear’d to be much help’d on in his subject - he concluded the meeting in supplication. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 8, Saturday: Russian Cossacks repelled Allied cavalry near Inkovo.
The 30-ton paddle steamer Comet began the first commercial steamboat service in Europe, over the 39 kilometers of the River Clyde between Glasgow, Greenock, and Helensburgh (this craft had been constructed by Henry Bell and John Wood).
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 8th M 8th / Matthew Franklin has been in town resting & visiting his freinds & acquaintances. — Our dear little son has been quite unwell all day RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 9, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 8 M 9 / Our dear little boy was so Ill this foenoon that my dear H was unwilling to be alone with him & I staid from meeting to assist her — In the Afternoon I went to meeting & the little boy was so much better that I took a Walk to the beach with David Rodman. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
August 10, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 8M 10 / Our little boy has been better today but on the whole rather poorly. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 11, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 8M 11 / Saw a man of colour at Wm Pattens from Philadelphia who is a Presbiterian preacher by the name of John Gloucester he was formerly a slave, has purchased himself & family which has cost him 1500 Dollars. two of which remains unpaid & he is now in town trying to collect the ballance due by donations from the Rich & humane. - he appears to be an intelligent & good looking man. - I can only wish him success being unable to assist him in a pecuniary way. — Our little boy has been very smart today — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 12, Wednesday: British, Portuguese, and Spanish troops under Arthur Wellesley, Viscount Wellington of Talavera and of Wellington entered Madrid.
Amos Perry was born in South Natick, Massachusetts. After graduating from Harvard College with Henry Thoreau in 1837 (he was a member of the Hasty Pudding Club, which Thoreau was not) he would teach in New London, Connecticut and Providence, Rhode Island. He would visit Europe several times and would be from 1862 till 1867 the United States consul at Tunis. In 1873 he would become the secretary of the Rhode Island historical society and in 1880 its librarian, and in 1885 he would be made the superintendent of the state census. In 1841 Brown University would award him the degree of A.M. He would publish, in 1869, CARTILAGE AND TUNIS, in 1883, MEMORIAL OF ZACHARIAH ALLEN, 1795-1882, and in 1887, RHODE ISLAND STATE CENSUS, 1885.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 8M 12 / Our little boy is but poorly at best, but I hope he will not be much worse. — This evening I went to Tennys meeting house & heard John Gloucester the man of colour mentioned yesterday preach & I thought he misaplied Scripture exceedingly, yet he appread to be a man of some ingenuity & readiness of utterance. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 13, Thursday: The USS Essex defeated HMS Alert off Bermuda, and captured a troop transport.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 8thM 13th 1812 / Our Meeting was a precious one. I thought I was sensible of more life circulating among us than I had felt for some time. — life seem acceptable if the mind like agitated Needle varied from the pole it seemed easily to HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
return to its wonted place again, for this favor I desire to be thankful. — Lydia Almy was concerned to speak a few words which I thought was savory. — While setting in Meeting today I could but contrast ours with the one I was in last evening. While there it seemed as if the sound was nearly all that I could find among them. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 14, Friday: Allied forces reached Krasnoye, southwest of Smolensk, and met the first organized Russian resistance.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 8M 14 / Our dear little boy seems to be very well now for which I believe my dear wife & I are cery thankful. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 15, Saturday: Mass in C by Giovanni Paisiello was performed for the initial time, at Paris.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 8M 15 / The mind has been turned on vaious subject, which very often deeply impress it. — The present State of things in this world & this beloved Nation in particular. The times are very trying, it seems as if there is nothing doing or to be done whereby an honest livelyhood can be obtained & what little that is done is so mingled with iniquity that one can scarcely touch & remain unpoluted. — I hear that this Afternoon that a prise has been sent in this Port by some privateer, & I am sure that knowingly I could not buy an ounce or gill of any thing she has on board & to have my hands or mind free from the most despicabale & mean kind of all Warfare — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 16, Sunday: The summer and early fall had been quiet on the Niagara Frontier, such as at Fort Niagara, with local American and British commanders having agreed upon a local truce while they each attempted to strengthen their respective positions. During the truce, however, the British took an opportunity to transfer some of their soldiers westward, and on this day they achieved an important victory at Detroit. The US commanding general, William Hull, would find himself being courtmartialed.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 8M 16 / In our forenoon meeting Father Rodman had a few words to communicate - then Hannah Dennis, & then D Buffum. I thought it was a very good meeting. The sap of life seemed to circulate without much obstruction. — In the Afternoon Father R was concerned in supplication. This Afternoon Mother Rodma & John went to Portsmouth to see Sister Eliza who has been there some time & on 6th day was taken ill of a bilous complaint but is now better. — HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
After Meeting visited the work & Alms houses with D R RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 17, Monday: The Federalist Party convened in New-York, choosing De Witt Clinton to run against incumbent President James Madison.
Russian and Allied forces had been battling near Smolensk for a couple of days and there had already been approximately 23,000 casualties without any strategic result. Under cover of darkness the Russians evacuated the city, which they had so trashed that it would prove logistically useless to the Emperor Napoléon I’s Grand Armée of Twenty Nations.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 8thM 17 / It has been a very stormy day, much rain & the Air as cold as in the [?] M — Our little boy has been very smartly well for several Days — The mind has been very lean & barran of Good — how poor & weak I am & alass I Know not when it will be more in the fullness with me. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
August 18, Tuesday: The Friends of Liberty, Peace and Commerce staged an anti-war mass meeting in New- York.
At this point during the 1812-1815 war with Great Britain, the USS Constitution captured the British frigate Guerriere. 101 people were killed.
The scene would be depicted in the following year by Thomas Birch:
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 18th of the M 1812 / The day has passed pretty much as usual — We had tea at father Rodmans — In the eveng Walked round the Hill with Br D Rodman RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 19, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 19 of 8M / Not a small degree of depression has been the companion of my mind. Things as to the outward appears very dubious, however may I be favord to view the favorable side of them as long as I can. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 20, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 20 of 8 M / Our Meeting was pretty well attended, HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
—&Ithought the forepart of it was favor’d with the circulation and spreading of life & was thankful in feeling myself in a measure partaker of it. — A friend appeard in the Ministry in the latter part of the Meeting. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 21, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 21 of 8M / James Lovegrove & his Wife with Josiah Siddons are in town. - James belongs to Baltimore & has been to Bolton & married a Daughter of Folger Popes & is now on his return home with his new Wife RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 22, Saturday: Swiss adventurer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt “discovered” the ancient city of Petra near Wadi Musa (Jordan).
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 22 of 8M / Rote a leeter to Hannah Pope & mentioned her Brother & Sisters being in town. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 23, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 23rd of 8thM / Our Morning Meeting was large as usual - According to my sense a good degree of favor was mercifully extended a friend appear’d in testimony & supplication — In the Afternoon we were silent & a pretty good time. My Dear H left the little boy at her fathers & went to Meeting RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 24, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 24th of 8M / I have had a very low spell, having felt as the Pelican in the Wikderness as described, alone lonely & lonesome in a great barraness, both as respects outward & inward prospects, & tho’ my prospects as to the outward are very small & streightened, yet have now been favor’d in buisness today beyond what is common, for which I desire to be thankful — My dear Mother spent the eveng with us RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
August 25, Tuesday: Following reverses in western Spain, the French lifted the siege of Cádiz and moved north.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 25 of 8M / It has been a pretty stiring day in town, on account of the Election of Jackson & Potter — the town Meeting was conducted with order & things acceded according to my wishes RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 26, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 26 of 8M / My mind has been brought under some feelings on account of several things. my dear H was taken quite unwell at dinner time which was somewhat alarming RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 27, Thursday: French forces abandoned Seville and moved north.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 27 of 8 M / Our Monthly Meeting is this day held at Portsmouth. I made arrangements to go & early My dear Wife & little son but the morning was very rainy & unsuitable for them. I thought my circumstances would not admit of my hiring a chaise for myself only & my health would be endangered by going on horseback RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 28, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 28 of 8th M 1812 / Sam’l Thurston & I having a little buisness with Sam’l Plum[?] we went out to his house & spent this Afternoon with him, he treated us very kindly, shewed us some curiosities around his house & several pieces of ancient Coin, one that was more than one thousand seven hundred years old, another that was coined of the gold that was dug out of Ancient Herculanium, another of gun metal coined at a time of great scarcity of money in England, & many of their guns were converted to that purpose - altho Money & doubtless a source of evil to some yet I had much rather the guns that are now in the world we put to that use than to kill men with. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 29, Saturday: Mikhail Ilarionovich Kutuzov took command of the Russian army.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 29 of 8M / My dear Wife not having been to Portsmouth HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
in rather more than a year. We concluded to take this pleasant Morning & go thither we carried our little Son he slept most of the time we were in the Chaise while going — We left him At Anne Anthonys & went to Meeting After meeting we returned there & dined then went to Cousin Z Chases & took tea, where we saw my dear Aunt Patty Gould She went out there some days past in hopes the change of Air may be beneficial to her health After tea we rode home & I believe our little Son is none the worse for his visit. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
August 30, Sunday: Isaac-Farwell Holton was born in Westminster, Vermont, a son of William Holton and Olive Rockwood Holton (they named him after Isaac Farwell, a revolutionary commander at the Battle of Bunker Hill). He would commence classical studies in Maine at the academies of South Berwick and Limerick, under the tuition of his uncle Isaac Holton, and complete his preparatory course under the Reverend Simeon Colton at the Amherst Academy in Massachusetts.
Daniel Rice Milts of East Sudbury got married with Nancy Baker.
Tsar Alyeksandr of Russia met Swedish Crown Prince Karl Johan at Åbo (Turku) and they reaffirmed the April 5th Treaty of St. Petersburg. The Tsar promised 35,000 men for the Swedish conquest of Norway.
August 31, Monday: Carl Maria von Weber left Berlin for Gotha.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 31st of 8 M / Our dear little boy seems to have taken no cold by his ride yesterday; that we yet perceive - This Afternoon a Privateer arrived & in her salute fired grape shot one of which grazed Benj Marvels Wife on the thigh, but did not hurt her materially. Such is the effects of those Wicked exploits. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
SEPTEMBER
September: Despite a Russian summer that had been so hot and unrelenting that tens of thousands of his French soldiers had died of heat prostration and sunstroke, the Emperor Napoléon I’s grand army was able to win against the Russian army at Borodino and capture what was left of Moscow — which the retreating Russians had put to the torch.
September: There was a food riot in Nottinghamshire, a factory was burned in Lancashire/Cheshire, two workshops were attacked and machinery was broken in Yorkshire, and in addition in that district the Luddites made some arms raids. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
September: The Shelleys traveled with Elizabeth Hitchener –who had joined them during July– to Tremadoc in North Wales.
September 1, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 1 of 9 M / Nothing worth inserting. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 2, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 2nd of 9 M 1812 / This is a day AWFULLY to be remembered about 10 OClock this forenoon two companies of volunteer troops under James Perry & David Mellvill paraded down street on their way to meet an enemy if one comes, which is the Prayer of my heart never may molest them. — Their faces were all well known to me, & many of them intimate acquaintance & old school fellows some of them men advanced in life & will probably according to the course of nature descend into their graves very shortly Should no cannon ball ever reach them. — On seeing them pass, mine heart was deeply reached, & prayer arose to the Great Over ruler of events, that he would hasten the time when nation should no more wage War with Nation & the Implememnts of Death be beaten into Instruments that may further the happiness of Mankind, & in a very particular manner to hasten the time when this highly favor’d nation may again be restored to peace & as formerly persue, every one his own occupation without the fear of an enemy. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 3, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 3 of 9M / Our dear little son has been very sick, was complaining yesterday & the day before, but today his Cough & oppressed lungs grew worse and assumed an unpleasant & alarming appearance that I was ready to conclude that the time was at hand when we must resign him to HIM who lent him to us. he is however relieved this evening from a puke for which I desire to be thankful. I find that he gets a fresh hole in my affections every day. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 4, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 4 of 9 M / Our dear little boy rested pretty well & had but one coughing spell thro’ the night & has been comfortable today 7th day 5th of 9 M / Our dear little son is still better but not Well It has been a very rainy day which with the uncommonly cold & wet weather that we have that of late renders the prospect very HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
dull & even gloomy respecting Corn, which is feared will be vert scant throughout New England - RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 5, Saturday: Allied forces reached the village of Borodino where the Russians had massed for the defense of Moscow. Some skirmishing began.
September 6, Sunday: Carl Maria von Weber arrived in Gotha from Leipzig and Berlin. He was alone, as Heinrich Baermann has given up the tour, leaving Weber in Berlin.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 6th of 9M / Our meetings were small woing to the very wet weather — The forenoon a good time to me the Afternoon rather more roving - CR spake a few words. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 7, Monday: Twelve hours of fighting between Russian and Allied troops at Borodino, west of Moscow, ended in complete stalemate, both sides too exhausted to continue. The day produced somewhere between 70,000 and 90,000 total casualties (more soldiers were killed at Borodino than in any battle prior to World War I).
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2 day 7 of 9 M / This morning I looked over some English news Papers - they much affected my mind particularly in observing their numerous notices of mirors[?] theft & need of every kind under the head of such trials by Law which it appears to be their custom to publish a list of accd to my heart true Prayer is the only safe spirit to dwell in & prayer ?? raised in my spirit for preservation from every vice RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
September 8, Tuesday: Russian forces withdrew from Borodino.
The news:
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 8th of 9th M 1812 / It is a very cloudy time both as respects the natural & Political world in the natural we have a very uncommon proportion of Cloudy & rainy weather & in the Political things are very dubious many days Mail brings fresh accounts of increased difficulty from various parts of the United States - Our Armys taken & defeated in some instances with much slaughter, & in the Southern State Negroes have in some places become disaffeced & made attempts to rise. - & the Minds of the people in allmost every quarter are much agitated some with jealousies towards one another & some of the Government, & where these things will end is very uncrtain. — May we flee to the Strong Tower in which there is safey & there HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
abide. I feel the desire to arise in fervant intercession in my own behalf from the full persuasions that nothing short will avail us in seasons of inward or outward conflicts This Afternoon in Company with Wm Allen & C J Tenny & some of the colourd directors visited the African Benevolent Society - was pleased with the appearance of the Scholars & their improvement in education. — As I was reurning from the above mentioned School saw our Ancient & very venerable friends Jeremiah Austin Senr standing on Washington Square with several with him - I was very glad to see him if it was but for a few minutes - he came to town on buisness & went out again directly. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 9, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 9 of 9 M / Rec’d a letter from David Smith, which was very gratiful. — My H & little son took tea at aunt A Carpenters also my Mother Aunt P Stanton & Brother Isaac & Wife also Lewis L Clarke who is over on a short visit to us RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 10, Thursday: French soldiers pillaged Novospasskoye, home town of Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 10 0f 9 M / Our Meeting was well attended the weather was pleasant & several elderly people came that does not in common from age & infermity — Job Chaloner was also with us & preached very sweetly & acceptably. I believe his appearance in the ministry was edifying & comforting to many present - C R had a few words towards the close of the Meeting, & I think I may say it was a season of favor. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 11, Friday: Sappho von Mitilene, a ballet by Johann Nepomuk Hummel to a scenario by Viganò, was performed for the initial time, in Vienna’s Theater-an-der-Wien.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 11 of 9 M / Widow Sears, Nancy Rathbone & daughter, Mother Rodman Josiah Lawton took tea with us. — Aunt Patty Gould spent the forenoon & dined with us. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 12, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7 day 12 of 9M 1812 / Yesterday Abigail Robinson Went to Providence accompanied by Saml Thurston to pay a little visit in a religious Way to friends there. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
September 13, Sunday: Joseph Wolff was baptized by Benedictine abbot Leopold Zolda of Emaus, near Prague.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 13 of 9 M / In our forenoon Meeting D B & C R had public communications to bear. — In the Afternoon we were Silent. - by the kindness of Sister Ruth my H was at meeting This forenoon & in the Afternoon we left the little boy at Aunt Patty Goulds & after Meeting we returned there & took tea with her. & tho very feeble she was very glad to have him. — After tea Brother D Rodman & I took a walk around the Hill & as we were returning up the Mainstreet we saw around Townsends Coffee house a large gathering of People which led me to suspect that some news had arrived. I stepped up to one standing by & inquired what it was. - he informed me that there was a report that three English shipes were seen off between Block Island & Point Judith - We walked up street & extended to the head of the Alms House lane & back thro’ Farwell Street & as we got near the Parade. We found the Town was under General Alarm. Drums beating fifes Playing & People running with their Arms in every direction. Soon a very considerable Military force was underway to Fort Adams & a gard set to Watch the town. The w[h]ole of the evening & forepart of the Night was Noisy - but thru the Whole I can truly say that fear scarcely possessed my mind. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 14, Monday: Russian soldiers and citizens torched Moscow and retreated to the southwest. About midnight the vanguard of the Grand Armée of Twenty Nations of the Emperor Napoléon I reached the abandoned metropolis. There would be no shelter and nothing to eat.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 14th of 9 M / This morning things have assumed their usual tranquility the English Ships appear to have gone by & the Military comapanys returning to their homes- It is wonderful how soon the Mind becomes fitted to its condition, perhaps if actual engagement had taken place I should have felt different but as it was in all the Meeting my mind was very calm. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 15, Tuesday: In New York, Robert Fulton reached a compromise with the Albany Company.
The Emperor Napoléon I took up residence in the Kremlin as fires broke out in the city, mostly set by Russian agents.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 15 of 9 M / Jeremiah Austin Junr is in town & been at HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
the Shop he shewed me a letter which he had written to James Madison which I though a pretty good one. — I wrote to D. Smith — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 16, Wednesday: The fires were so intense in Moscow that the Emperor Napoléon I and his staff were forced to retire to the Petrovskoye Palace outside the city.
Lowell Mason’s first musical composition, the anthem Ordination, was performed for the initial time, at the ordination of Dr. Ralph Sanger as pastor of the Unitarian Church in Dover, Massachusetts.
September 17, Thursday: Over the previous three days fire had been destroying three quarters of Moscow as the invading army looted whatever they could.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 17 of 9 M 1812 / Our Meeting was pretty well attended, specially on the Womens side of the house. — We were silent in the first & the last (preparative) we had no buisness. My mind was comfortably refreshed in the first meeting, tho’ some roving was experienced. This Afternoon I took a Walk into the Neck as far as the Telegraph erected for the purpose of Alarm in case of Ships of War — John Tillinghast went with me. — I had much agreeable reflection of Mind & our conversation was mostly on subjects interesting & innocent — I travelled over fields & viewed scenes that I never did before & in returning we came the way I was Just eight Years & three days ago with Thos Hornsby. — My mind was solemnized in many reflections on things that are past since that space of time. — What will happen or where I shall be in the eight years to come is hid with him who knows all things, & who in infinite wisdom has ordered it so, for if we knew our fate, Miserable indeed should we be. — Many of my intimate friends & dear connections have within the last years descended to the grave & perhaps before the next comes around I may be number’d with them. And Oh saith my soul may my exit be in PEACE come when it may RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 18, Friday: The Emperor Napoléon and his staff returned to Moscow from their temporary refuge in the Petrovskoye Palace outside the city.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 18th of 9 M / My H with our little boy with Mother Rodman Spent the Day at Uncle Saml Thurstons. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
September 19, Saturday: Admitted to the bar in Middlesex County, John Keyes “hung out his shingle” as a lawyer in Concord.
The Emperor Napoléon authorized a French retreat from Russia.
In Spain, British forces withdrew from Burgos.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 19 of 9 M / Our dear little boy seems to be well at present which with the present good health of his mother I feel as a blessing to me. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 20, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 20 of 9 M / In the forenoon meeting C R had a few words to communicate - After Dinner my mind being inclined I went out to Middletown & visited some of my relations there Took tea with cousin Sarah Gould Widow of John Gould - On my way home called to see cousin Elizabeth Anthony I find that with the removal of individuals places in a very great measure lose their charms from my boyhood up to the present time I have occasionally had many very pleasant visits in that neighborhood, but since the Family of my dear cousin Thos Gould has been broken up the center has seemingly been removed & there is not so great an enthusiasm as when his family were there RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 21, Monday: US forces marched under Captain Benjamin Forsyth from Sackets Harbor, New York to Cape Vincent, crossed the border under cover of darkness, and attacked British and Canadian forces at Gananoque, Ontario. The US forces were victorious.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 21 of 9 M 1812 / The day has passed with the general sameness of most The mind has been turned in many ways. [black lines obscuring] RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 22, Tuesday: A Kyrie in C by Antonio Salieri was performed for the initial time, in Vienna.
The Spanish cortes offered the post of commander in chief of its armed forces to Arthur Wellesley, Viscount Wellington.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 22 of 9 M / Aunt Molly Wanton was this eveng taken ill with faintness & sickness of the stomach but got most renewed before bed time. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
September 23, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 23 of 9 M / Aunt Molly Wanton seem’d quite poorly this morning but after the medicine had effect she was quite smart in the Afternoon. I did not know but she was about to leave us, from the manner in which she was taken. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 24, Thursday: At Mozhaysk, west of Moscow, Russian forces severed the main supply line of the Emperor Napoléon’s Grand Army of allies. Suddenly this Grand Army was all alone and on its own. Oh, this is going to get ugly.
The Principalities of Waldeck and Pyrmont were rejoined as the Principality of Waldeck-Pyrmont under Prince Georg.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 24 of 9 M / Our Meeting was well attended & a precious good one it was our friend Daniel Howland of Greenwich was with us & preached very sweetly & with good gospel Auntority. Job Chaloner was also present & concern’d in an acceptably testimony In the last meeting (Monthly) we had considerable buisness, some of it was exercising both on the mens & womens side of the house but things I believe will end well at last. — Rich Mitchell Geo Dennis & Anne Anthony dined with us. In the eveng went with my H & sister Ruth & sat a while with our good Old neighbor Saml Towle & Wife — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 25, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 25 of 9 M / Daniel Clapp Jr of Pomfret & Sarah Albro of Middletown were married at our Meeting house a meeting was appointed at the 3rd hour in the Afternoon for the purpose. — towards the conclusion of the Meeting D Buffum made a few observations which were very gratefull to my feelings. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 26, Saturday: Gioachino Rossini’s melodramma giocoso La pietra del paragone to words of Romanelli was performed for the initial time, in Teatro alla Scala, Milan. The work was an instant success.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 26 of 9 M / Nothing material to insert - Mother R Set the evening with us RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
September 27, Sunday: Pedro Gómez-Labrador Avelo replaced Carlos Martínez de Irujo y Tacón, marques de Casa-Irujo as First Secretary of State of the resistance government of Spain.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 27 of 9 M / C R & D Buffum were concerned in testimony & in the forenoon Meetings — Colonel Kingsbury was present. — In the Afternoon C R had a few words to communicate — After meeting I took tea with Saml Thurston Danl Clapp Jun & Wife were also there. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
September 28, Monday: According to the journal of Friend Thomas B. Hazard or Hafsard or Hasard of Kingstown, Rhode Island, also known as “Nailer Tom,”33 there was a “Ginneral Muster” on this day at Exeter, Rhode Island.
The Count von Rumford’s will was witnessed by, among others, the Marquis de Lafayette. He left his watches to Humphry Davy and Daniel Parker and the bulk of his estate he divided among his daughter Sarah, whom he had once abandoned, Harvard College, which he had never attended, and the United States Military Academy of an army he had once betrayed.34 In his dotage he was writing an article “On the Salubrity of Warm Bathing” while occupying his time playing solo bridge and chess and riding around Paris in a carriage dressed entirely in white. He was also scribbling on the magnum opus by which he was to be remembered,
33. He was called “Nailer Tom” because his trade was the cutting of nails from scrap iron, and in order to distinguish him from a relative known as “College Tom,” from another relative known as “Shepherd Tom,” and from his own son who –because he had fits– was known as “Pistol-Head Tom.” 34.It would be the sheerest surmise, and probably inaccurate, to infer that Benjamin Thompson had had any second thoughts about any of his activities. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
“The Nature and Effects of Order,” from which we have most fortunately been spared.35
Sarah, Countess of Rumford, as of 1797
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 28th of 9th M / The times a[re] serious & gloomy. The War has involved us in many miseries which I think thicken every day, where or how the many of the inhabitants of this town are to get even the common necessaries of life the coming Winter is hid in dark uncertainty I feel not a little depressed at the prospect as respects my self, but hope to be enabled to place my confidence in HIM who
35.After his death, his daughter Sarah, angry at not having been allowed to marry and at having been forced all those years to attend an old father, decorated her home with portraits of his mistresses and used the manuscript pages to start fires in his fireplace. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
is not now less in power, than in the days of famine formerly RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 29, Tuesday: Sometime after this date, the Shelleys went with Elizabeth Hitchener to London.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 29 of 9 M / Edw W Lawton & wife J Rodman & Wife Mary Anthony & her brother George & E Rodman took tea with us — & some of them set the eveng (on our part) very agreeably — I love the company of my friends, & the circle of this Afternoon & eveng were peculiarly pleasant. — [five lines crossed out] RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
September 30, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 30 of 9 M 1812 / here ends the Month with account of a d in the Upper burying ground in the Meadow field - his remains were first carried to the Meeting house - C R & D B made communications sad disaster which happened last night - A gun boat was cast away on Bevertail & nine men lost. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
FALL 1812
Fall: Thomas Thomson, M.D., F.R.S., L.&E., F.L.S., Member of the Geological Society, of the Wernerian Society, and of the Imperial Chirurgo-Medical Academy of Petersburgh was traveling in Sweden. This would result in TRAVELS IN SWEDEN, DURING THE AUTUMN OF 1812. ILLUSTRATED BY MAPS AND OTHER PLATES (London: Printed for Robert Baldwin, Paternoster-Row; sold also by William Blackwood, Edinburgh; and John Cumming, Dublin. 1813).
THOMAS THOMSON’S SWEDEN
OCTOBER
October: During this month and the following one, Samuel Taylor Coleridge would be in Bristol, England lecturing on Shakespeare and on education, and in Clifton, lecturing on Milton and on poetry.
In this period his Wedgwood annuity was being reduced by half, to £75.
October: There had been a local truce on the Niagara Frontier, such as at Fort Niagara, and the British forces had turned this to their advantage by moving troops toward the west and capturing Detroit. At this point the truce expired with the British forces back in their Niagara positions and, although outnumbered, well prepared for a defensive action. They would not need to wait very long.
October: In Yorkshire, Luddites were being arrested. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
October: Robert Fulton agreed to supervise the conversion of the canal across lower Manhattan Island into the present Canal Street.
October 1, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 1 of 10 M 1812 / Our Meeting was small principly owing to a considerable number of friends having gone to Thurston to attend the Marriage of David Buffum Junr & Susan Ann Barker. the Meeting was appointed at 2 OC PM This Afternoon Mother & Aunt Patty Stanton return’d from Narragansett where they have been on a visit three weeks lacking one day. — My H spent the Afternoon at her fathers with the little boy - I took tea with them — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 2, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 2nd of 10 M / The day has passed without any thing particular to insert. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 3, Saturday: La duchesse de la Vallière, a cantata by Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold was performed for the initial time, at the prize-giving ceremony for the Prix de Rome, in Paris (Hérold’s work won 1st prize).
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 3 of 10 M / My H and little son spent the day at my Mothers — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
October 4, Sunday: In London a spendthrift 19-year-old heir to a baronetcy, Percy Bysshe Shelley, who was just getting his bride Harriet Westbrook Shelley pregnant, met William Godwin, a liberally oriented man whose defenseless daughter Mary Godwin Wollstonecraft had just turned 15. Hot damn!
WILLIAM GODWIN’S LIFE
US forces defeated British forces at Ogdensburgh, New York after a British raid out of Prescott, Ontario had failed and their two gunboats had been forced to return.
The French garrison of the Spanish city of Burgos was besieged by British and Portuguese troops under Arthur Wellesley, Viscount Wellington. The siege would fail when French forces would be relieved, but Wellington would capture the city during June 1813 shortly before the battle of Vitoria.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 3 [sic] of 10 M / C R was concern’d in testimony in the forenoon & Afternoon Meetings — Visited the Work & Alms houses — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
October 5, Monday: The Emperor Napoléon I sent out emissaries, searching for someone with whom he might conclude an armistice or peace. –My goodness, Mon General, are you suddenly interested in declaring peace?
Ludwig van Beethoven arrived in Linz to try and break up an affair between his brother Johann and the sister- in-law of Johann’s tenant, Therese Obermayer. The dispute would result in a physical brawl between the two brothers.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 5 of 10 M / The day has passed pretty much with the usual rounds — Aunt Patty Gould dined with us. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 6, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 6 of 10 M / Nothing particular to insert. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 7, Wednesday: In 1806 Edward Flint had been appointed guardian over the five minor children of widow Mary Brooks Merriam, but at this point guardianship was transferred to her 2d husband William Swan.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 7 of 10 M / My Mother and Aunt patty Stanton spent the Day & set the evening with us. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 8, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 8 of 10 M / This forenoon I went to Connanicut on buisness of the Estate of Daniel Holloway, after I had compleated what I went for — Called a little while at Cousin Joseph Greenes & Cousin Molly Howland & got back to town at rather late Dinner time — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 9, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 9 of 10 M / Tho’ somewhat unwell & fatigued yesterday I consented to set up last night with our Aged friend Wm Lee who appears near the conclusion of time — & tho unwell I may acknowledge that I was helped for I was not sleepy in the night & have not felt those disagreeable feelings today which follow watching. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
October 10, Saturday: It may have been on this day that in a transparent attempt to resolve his pressing financial issues, George Gordon, Lord Byron proposed marriage to the heiress Anne Isabella Milbanke (she had the sense to refuse him).
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 10 of 10 M 1812 / This Afternoon in company with the others of the committee for the purpose visited Sarah Stevens, late Sherman in consequence of her having Married out of the order of society. — Towards night I went to Portsmouth on buisness Lodged at Z Chases. - After breakfast the next Morning I called at P Lawtons & from Thence went to Meeting which was a good comfortable time to me - no one preached — After Meeting I went to Abraham Anthonys & dined then returnd to Cousin Z Chases & took tea then Walked homeward. found my H & little son in good health. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 12, Monday: Dr. Peter Goodnow of Bolton established a medical practice in Acton. Dr. Peter Goodnow was from Bolton, commenced practice in Acton, 12th of October, 1812, left 18th of February, 1827, and is now [1835] a merchant in Boston.36
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 12 of 10 M / This forenoon Departed this life in the 84th Year of his Age William Lee, An examplary man in the various walks of life, and has been a useful member of society especially as one of the Trustees of the Point land. - & the last man living of the former set. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 13, Tuesday: Samuel Hoar got married with Sarah Sherman, daughter of the Honorable Roger Sherman of New Haven, Connecticut. The couple would have six children and would reside in Concord at what is now 158 Main Street.
US military forces began crossing the Niagara River at Lewiston, New York by occupying the village of Queenstown Heights, Canada and killing the commander of the British forces there, General Isaac Brock. However, the state militiamen were refusing to leave the territory of the United States of America, and so, when the British forces counterattacked, the federal troops who had made the crossing to the Canadian bank, unsupported, out on a limb, found it necessary to surrender. The garrison of Fort Niagara attempted to divert enemy attention with a bombardment of Fort George on Queenston Heights. Fort George returned the cannon
36. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy (On or about November 11, 1837 Henry Thoreau would indicate a familiarity with the contents of at least pages 2-3 and 6-9 of this historical study. On July 16, 1859 he would correct a date mistake buried in the body of the text.) HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
fire and, because of their higher position, were able to drive the American gunners away from their weapons. The American fort, its guns silenced, was then abandoned. Its garrison huddled outside its walls. Realizing that under these conditions the British would be able to simply walk in and occupy the American position, the American officers called for volunteers and reoccupied the fort. (In the lull that would follow this fighting, United States Engineers would attempt to improve the old fortifications by strengthening the exposed river side of the fort with temporary walls. To compensate somewhat for the fact that the batteries of Fort George could fire down on Fort Niagara, the Engineers removed the roofs of the two redoubts and the “French Castle” and remounted their cannon on the upper floors to gain every possible bit of extra elevation.)
On the following day, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould would write this in his journal: 3rd & 4th days / Have passed much as usual, & nothing has occur’d worth inserting. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 15, Thursday: The Reverend Ephraim Abbott interviewed a violent psychopath, John Usher, whose hands were being kept tied at all times: “The more evil he does, the more he seems to rejoice.”
(On the same day, this Congregationalist pastor made an attempt to persuade a birthright Quaker to convert. :-)
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 15th of 10 M / Wm Lee was this day inter’d in the Upper burying ground in the Meadow field - his remains were first carried to the Meeting house - C R & D B made communications RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 16, Friday, and 17, Saturday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6 & 7 days / Nothing particular to insert RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 18, Sunday: On the same day that the Emperor Napoléon I resolved to retreat to Smolensk, Russian forces took a body Allied cavalry near Vinkovo completely by surprise (the French would nevertheless manage to make their escape).
Jacob and Wilhelm, the Brothers Grimm dated the preface to the initial volume of their KINDER- UND HAUS:MÄRCHEN.
The USS Wasp captured the HMS Frolic well off the Virginia coast.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 18 of 10 M / Our friend Christopher Hely & Nathan Spencer & his wife of Rensillerville in N York state were at Meeting Christopher is an excellent preacher in a plain simple way - in the Afternoon he called together as many of the inhabitants of the town & people of colour as he could get & a favor’d meeting it was. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
October 19, Monday: The Emperor Napoléon I departed from Moscow. The Grand Armée of Twenty Nations began its long homeward trudge. In two days of fighting the Allies would be driven back at Polotsk, northwest of Smolensk.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 19 of 10 M / Much occupied in settling the Estate of Daniel Holloway which we are in hopes soon to compleate RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 20, Tuesday: Austin Flint, who would become a pioneer in US heart research, was born.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 20 of 10 M / Occupied much as Yesterday. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 21, Wednesday: When they learned of the advance of the French into La Mancha, the British and Portuguese raised their siege of Burgos and retreated towards Valladolid.
Samuel Wesley wrote to his mother in Brighton asking for money. Since she has recently come to his aid he requested half of his inheritance.
Uriah Phillips Levy was commissioned as a sailing master in the US Navy.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 21 of 10 M / Again much occupied about the Estate of D Holloway RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 22,Thursday: US militia out of Fort Covington, New York attacked a British outpost at St. Regis. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
October 22, Thursday: John Adams was born in Medway 25 miles south of Concord as the crow flies — and would grow up there. On the same day a 1st child, Helen Louisa Thoreau, was born to John Thoreau and Cynthia Dunbar Thoreau, who had married one another on the eleventh of May in that year.
DUNBAR FAMILY
THOREAU GENEALOGY
John in later years Cynthia in later years We may note that when this child would belatedly be recorded in the Concord town records, she would be recorded as having been born as of the year 1813. (The town’s records are not all that accurate or complete, but might this error have been purposefully registered in order to remove any doubt as to Helen’s legitimacy as the eldest child of this very new marriage?) Births
Name Sex Birth Date Birth Place Father’s Name Mother’s Name
THOREAU, John 1754 Concord
THOREAU, Mary F 1786 Concord John
THOREAU, Sarah 1791 Concord
THOREAU, Helen L. F 1813 Concord John Cynthia
THOREAU, John M 1815 Concord John Cynthia
THOREAU, Sophia Elizabeth F Sept. 27, 1819 Chelmsford John Cynthia
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 22 of 10 M / Our friend Christo Hely was in town & attended Meeting & the funeral of Sam Wilcox - but being previously engaged I went to Conanicut with our friend D Buffum to attend the funeral of Job Watson where David was largely & very acceptably engaged in declaring the truth to the People. - We dined at John Weedens & got home before sunset. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
October 23, Friday: US troops at St. Regise, New York killed 8 British soldiers, took 23 prisoners, and captured supplies meant for trade with the Indians.
After the retreating Allies took control of Maloyaroslavets and a bridge over the River Lusha, Russian troops appeared and drove them away.
In France a group of officers headed up by General Claude-François de Malet (who had for four years been being detained at a lunatic asylum), announced that the Emperor Napoléon had deceased and read to the public a faked proclamation of the French senate authorizing formation of a new government. The conspirators suborned the officers of the 10th Cohort, a body of 1,200 soldiers, and set up their military headquarters in the Hotel de Ville. General Malet occupied the offices of the district general of the Place Vendôme where, confronted by General Pierre-Augustin Hulin, commander of the Paris garrison, he shot him. Recognizing Malet as a recent detainee, Major Laborde then disarmed him, returned him to custody, and ordered the 10th Cohort back into barracks. A total of 84 people would be taken into custody.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 23 of 10 M 1812 / Nothing very particular to insert, the day has passed with the usual rounds. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 24, Saturday: After a fierce battle for Maloyaroslavets, during which the town changed hands five times, the Russians were forced to withdraw, although they would continue to fire on the Allies in the town.
Publication of Eight Piano Pieces op.37 by Johann Nepomuk Hummel was announced in the Wiener Zeitung.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 24 of 10 M / Our much lov’d friend Obadiah Williams left us this forenoon with his family for Albany intending to settle some where in the state of N York. - my mind was not a little affected at parting with them I loved them much & consider him & his family a loss to this meeting. — This Afternoon visited Sarah Stevens in company with the others of the committee, her situation is peculiar & has engaged our sympathy & fervant desires for her wellfare in treating with her my mind was uncommonly opened & favor’d to speak in a manner that was peaceful to myself RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 25, Sunday: USS United States defeated HMS Macedonian off the Azores.
When French forces defeated the Spanish at Palencia, effectively they obtained control over Valladolid.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 25 of 10 M / Our forenoon Meeting was to me a very precious season, a renewal of lif was experienced for which I desire to be thankful. - C R spake a few words — In the Afternoon not quiet so much favor’d but a pretty good meeting. - RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
October 26, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 26 of 10 M / Our dear little boy has been for several days quite complaining & today has had an eruption on his skin which I think favorable if it does not strike in The Doctor say this eveng that the eruption on Johns skin is the Wild fire & that care must be taken to keep it out — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 27, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 27 of 10 M / My spirit is deeply oppressed & depressed & was the same feelings to continue for any length of time I dont know what would be the consequence. — but thro’ favor it goes off & I am favor’d with quiet. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 28, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 28 of 10 M / After breakfast this morng in walking to my Shop I was inform’d of the decease of my wife’s Uncle in law Job Almy he was up very early in the morng & complained of a pain in his stomach but walked out in his Orchard, came in again & soon expired in his chair. the news of his sudden departure very much affected my feelings. - I went out directly to his house in season to assist in laying him out. Oh! the great necessity of ever keeping on the Watch, even unto prayer to God for help for we know not in what day or hour we may be called to render an account of our Deeds RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 29, Thursday: General Claude-François de Malet and 22 others involved in the failed coup d’état against the Emperor Napoléon I were convicted by a council of war.37
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 29th of 10th M 1812 / Rode with my dear H to Portsmouth to attend the Moy [Monthly] Meeting — Christopher Healy was there & was very largely concern’d in testimony he is a man of no education & not very largely endowed with human understanding, but is very uncommonly gifted in the Ministry. he is powerful & reaching upon an Audience & appears to attend very closely to divine openings & I said in my heart with Wm Penn who remarked after a very powerful testimony from John Steel appointed for a great Public dispute with some of the Priests of that day — After the Meeting ended Wm Penn remarked to Robt Barclay “This is neither the Wisdom of the North nor the elloquence of the South but the Power of God thro’ a Plowman which is Wonderful in our eyes.” Our last meeting was favor’d Christopher having much to communicate. — our buisness was conducted with uninimity & love 37. It is accepted that a coup d’état that fails is by definition a mutiny, and treason. Nobody likes losers! HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
tho’ some exercising things were before us & the meeting was detained late. — We reached Richard Mitchells about sunset & dined. - then rode home & found that our dear little John had done exceedingly well without his mother under the care of Mary Briggs which I consider an encouragement for her to leave him again when duty calls her away which at this time I thought did — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 30, Friday: British troops began retreating out of New Castile, which would leave the capital city of Madrid undefended. The British soldiers took out their frustrations on the Spanish populace and there was the usual round of murders, rapes, and looting.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 30 of 10M / Job Almy was inter’d this Afternoon. My H went to the funeral which was very large but the Widow Phebe Proud Aged 91 Years being to be buried at the same time & in a plain way in our burying ground, I thought it probable but few people would attend & duty seemed to lead me there, so I omitted the first mentioned funeral & went to the last & was glad I did, & it proved as I supposed it would, but few people were there & they were beset to get suitable bearers. I called a while this eveng at D Williams, & went home & found My Mother & Aunt P Stanton setting with my H. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
October 31, Saturday: Napoléon Bonaparte reached Vyaz’ma, 218 kilometers west of Moscow, and paused to assess his situation.
In France, 13 persons convicted of the failed coup d’état, three of them generals of the army, were executed on the plain of Grenelle.
As you can see here, mass executions by volley tend to be messy because not everybody gets aimed at — someone usually need to wait while the guys reload.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
7th day 31 of 10M 1812 / Aunt Patty Stanton sailed this forenoon about 10 OClock for New York. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
NOVEMBER
November: In Yorkshire, more Luddites were being arrested. In Nottinghamshire, there was a food riot and one additional frame was broken.
November: Pittsfield, Massachusetts saddler Abelard Reynolds, newly arrived in Rochesterville, New York, was named postmaster. He had been on his way to settle in Ohio, but liked the Genesee Falls area so much that he changed his mind and purchased lots 23 and 24 on Main Street.
November 1, Sunday: At high mass in St. Michael’s Church in München, Georg Joseph Vogler demonstrated his triorganon for the initial time (he had only recently completed construction of this instrument).
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 1 of 11 M 1812 / Our forenoon Meeting was large & a season of great poverty of spirit to me. C R had a few words to communicate. In the Afternoon it was larger than Common for an Afternoon Meeting Wm Almy was with us & rose late in the sitting apparently poor & the seed low in his mind & in Meeting but by his keeping close to the openings of truth & foloowing it faithfully in its risings & falling. Truth rose sweetly into dominion & I have no doubt but he was favor’d to minister very suitably to the states of some present & I felt pretty clearly that his communication was blessed to us I sat the eveng at home. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 2, Monday: Near Prague, Prince Ferdinand Johann Nepomuk Kinsky, an important patron of Ludwig van Beethoven, fell off his horse — he would soon die.
Martin Van Buren was sworn in as a New York State Senator.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 2 of 11M / I have some exercises to pass through which are indeed painful to flesh & blood, & I find no way so safe as to turn the mind inward & pray secretly in the ability afforded for help preservation & forgiveness, which has been my experience this morning. which I desire to render thanksgiving to Him who thus helpeth. — Went this evening to see Dorcas Easton & Abigail Lee to advise with about their affairs. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
November 3, Tuesday: A Republican caucus chose DeWitte Clinton to run for the governorship of New York.
From this date until January 26, 1813, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Belles Lettres and his Shakespeare lectures would be being presented at the Surrey Institution.
Pursuing Russians succeeded in surrounding the Allied rear guard. The rear guard would eventually be saved, but at great cost to the Allies.
In Newport, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould became a juror: 3rd day 3rd of 11 M / I have the misfortune to be drawn a Juror at the now sitting Court of Common Please & have spent much of this day at the Court house. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS RHODE ISLAND
November 4, Wednesday: Samuel Wesley wrote to his mother once again to notify her that if her son failed to receive £100 immediately, he was going to be clapped in the debtors’ prison.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 4th of 11 M / Occupied as Yesterday had two cases committed to the Jury & was favor’d to give such a Verdict in each case as feels easy to my mind. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS RHODE ISLAND
November 5, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 5 of 11 M / Got discharged from the court so as to be at Meeting late, but was favor’d to get quiet soon considering the confused litigation I had just left - Paul Cuffe was at meeting & Dined with me after dinner settled a little buisness between us & in the Afternoon went to Court again, tried a case but did feel so well Satisfied as in the former ones tho’ I could see no other way to get along with it. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS RHODE ISLAND
November 6, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 6 of 11 M 1812 / Got clear of the Jury this forenoon in consequence of being a relation to one of the Parties concern’d — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS RHODE ISLAND HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
November 7, Saturday: Allied troops in the north of Spain retreated to Chereya.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 7 of 11 M / Again on the Jury but got discharged this eveng — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS RHODE ISLAND
November 8, Sunday: Incensed by the behavior of his brother Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann van Beethoven got married with Therese Obermayer (whereupon Ludwig returned to Vienna).
November 9, Monday: George Gordon, Lord Byron wrote a final letter to Caroline Lamb, which she would later publish in her novel, GLENARVON.
Napoléon Bonaparte and the Grande Armée reached Smolensk where they proceeded to loot the city. At the same time, Allied reinforcements were attacked by Russians southwest of the city and induced to surrender.
In Newport, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 9 of 11 M / Been buisily engaged in getting in my shop wood &c. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 11, Wednesday: US troops led by Commodore Isaac Chauncey sailed out of Sackets Harbor, New York and attacked the Canadian Provincial Marine Fleet at Kingston, Ontario. Chauncey was, however, forced to withdraw without having driven the British from Lake Ontario.
In Newport, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 11 of 11 M / Buisily occupied at trade & find myself much behind hand in consequence of last weeks service at Court RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 12, Thursday: Allied forces began to retreat west from Smolensk.
In Newport, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 12 of 11 M / I have seem’d to be so much occupied in my shop that I was inclined to believe that duty to my family demanded the omission of Meetings, but on the whole I dont know nor hardly believe that I gained any thing by it. — By those who did attend I learnt that C R had a few words to communicate & H Dennis was largely concerned in public testimony — In the eveng I called a little while at D Williams.- RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 13, Friday: George Gordon, Lord Byron left Eywood after his stay with Lady Oxford.
In Newport, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
6th day 13 of 11 M / I felt disposed this forenoon to write to Edward Cobb of Portland, In the eveng called & set a while at Aunt Martha Goulds — My H & little son spent the Day at her fathers. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 14, Saturday: The Allies attacked the Russians at Smolyani but were forced to withdraw.
Back again in Newport, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 14 of 11 M / This eveng by moonlight walked to Portsmouth & reached cousin Z Chases in season to set some time very agreeably with them before bed time — In the morng I rode with him to Meeting which was silent & a poor wandering time to me. I rode back with cousin Chase as far as Uncle Peter Lawtons where I stoped & dined transacted the little buisness that called me to Portsmouth & spent the afternoon very agreeably.- after tea Uncle Peter brought me homeward as far as John Goulds from thence I walked home stopping by the way at Sam’l Thurstons —found my H & little son fine & well — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 15, Sunday: John Clarke Allen was born to Mary Morrill Allen and the Reverend Wilkes Allen in Chelmsford, Massachusetts.
At about the midpoint of November the Shelleys returned from London, without Elizabeth Hitchener, to Tremadoc.
November 16, Monday: Russian troops captured Minsk, the main Allied supply point.
Georg Joseph Vogler gave the first public concert on his instrument, the triorganon, in St. Michael’s Church, München. This performance was a great success.
General Henry Dearborn began moving 5,000 men from Plattsburgh, New York to Rouses Point for a planned invasion of Canada.
In Newport, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2&3 days 16th & 17 of 11 M 1812 / These days have passed as usual except that My H & little son on 3rd day spent the day at my Mothers RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 17, Tuesday: Allied troops attacked the Russians south of Krasnoye and sent them reeling. Left for dead on the battlefield was 24-year-old Jean-Victor Poncelet. He would recover and in the following spring, in a Russian prison camp, invent projective geometry.
November 18, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 18 of 11 M / Nothing material to insert that occurs to HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
mind RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 19, Thursday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 19 of 11 M / Our meeting was large as usual & I doubt not but a season of instruction to some minds present - C R was concern’d in testimony & supplication —- In the last meeting (Preparative) Osborn Mory requested to be admitted into membership RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 20, Friday: General Henry Dearborn’s New York militia refused to cross over into Canada.
Russian troops crossed from the west bank of the Berezina into Borisov northeast of Minsk, and captured it from Polish defenders.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 20 of 11 M / On 2nd day [Monday, November 16th] last Died Samuel Young Aged 85 Years he was a fisherman & accounted an honest Man I have been accustomed from boyhood to see him moving round the Neighborhood & Standing at the Grainary corner with his fish. he was a short man & wore a wig which rendered him somewhat remarkable for appearance as wigs of the description he wore are now very uncommon. - Thus one old standard after another is removed & we may in time take their places in the minds of the rising posterity & then be removed ourselves, but to calculate on long life is very precarious for we know not what Day or hour we may be called away, — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 21, Saturday: Alterations to Fort Niagara, New York had been made just in time. The US forces there and the British at Fort George on the far side of the Niagara River found themselves engaged in an artillery duel. The action produced a heroine: when, at the height of the battle, a cannon mounted on the roof of the French Castle lost one of its crewmen, a soldier’s wife, Betsy Doyle, stepped in to help keep the cannon in operation.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 7th day 21 of 11 M / The day has passed with the usual rounds. - RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 22, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 22 of 11 M / Our meeting this forenoon was large & I believe a solemn season to minds present C R had a few words in testimony on the subject of living faith — In the Afternoon it was better attended than usual for an Afternoon Meeting D Buffum was concern’d on a remarkable pointed HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
manner to warn us of the possibility of withstanding the day of visitation until it closes upon us, & repeated this Passage with great earnestness & power “Call upon the Lord while he is near & upon our God for he will have mercy & abundantly pardon” saying that it had rung in his ears from hour to hour both in the present & morning sitting After Meeting I walked into the common burying ground with Christo Almy, then took tea with Aunt Patty gould & set the remainder of the eveng at home Molly eveng passed it with us with her son John very agreeably on our part RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 24, Tuesday: L’occasione fa il ladro, a burletta per musica by Gioachino Rossini to words of Prividali after Scribe, was performed for the initial time, in Teatro San Moisè, Venice. Public reaction was tepid.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd & 3rd day 23 & 24 of 11 M 1812 / Nothing uncommon has occur’d these days, but the mind hath been mindful of many things. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 25,Wednesday: After pressing Russian forces under Mikhail Kutuzov, Peter Wittgenstein, and Admiral Pavel Chichagov off the west bank of the Berezina River, the Grand Armée of Twenty Nations of Napoléon Bonaparte began to cross at Studienka. The river was unexpectedly thawed and, since the bridge had been destroyed, difficult to cross. Finally the river was crossed on a reconstructed pontoon bridge. Casualties were very high on both sides.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 25th of 11 M / My mind hath been introduced into feelings not a little exquisite in looking at the prospect of things as respects a livelyhood if things remain as they are. The Rich will be made poor & the poo, poorer still even to wrtchedness. The War obstructs allmost every kind of traffic in which a man may be innocently concerned & there is no human prospect of cessation of hostillities between this country & Britain & where we shall land is only known to him who sees & knows all things. — Under tthese prospects my mind sometimes much depressed, for since the War commenced I have not done buisness sufficient to maintain myself & family & see no way to extend it. And Oh that my dependence may be on the Lord who is mindful of the smallest amongst men. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 27, Friday: Lowell Mason left his home in Medfield, Massachusetts to move to Savannah, Georgia.
In Newport, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 26 of 11 M / Our Monthly Meeting this day held in town HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
has been a remarkable one for divine favor. Abigail Robinson was first concerned in testimony then Anne Greene in supplication & then in testimony, then D Buffum in testimony then Hannah Dennis & then Abel Collins from So Kingston, then A Robinson concluded with a few pertinent words hoping that we might abide under to present favor. I do not recollect a meeting of more openess in the ministry in this town nor one wherin divine good seemed nearer. - The buisness in the last was conducted with uninimity & love & I believe all ended well with us. — Isaac Lawton & Darius Lawton Dined with us. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 28, Saturday: Russian forces attacked remnants of the Allied force still east of the Berezina River. Retreating to Studienka, the Allies gave battle but were captured.
In Newport, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th & 7th Days of Week / Have passed pretty much as usual & nothing particular to insert. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 29, Sunday: The Allies completed their crossing of the Berezina River and blew up their pontoon bridges, leaving behind 15,000 camp followers and refugees most of whom would be massacred by Cossacks. Russian forces attacked Plechenitzi on the Allied route of retreat but in a desperate action were fought off.
In Newport, Rhode Island, Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 29 of 11 M / Our meetings were very small owning to its being a very uncommon hevy rain all Day — I was however glad to observe John Castons zeal in getting out both forenoon, of whom recent convictions & change from a careless & very unconcern’d life to one very devoted & concern’d for his immortal part I may write when I feel more like it. Lewis Clarke & his nephew Sam’l took tea with & cousin Saml spent the eveng - he appears to be of strict Presbyterian he lives in Pomfret in Connecticut Sister Eliza has been with us all Day. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
November 30, Monday: Birth of the second child of John James Audubon and Lucy Bakewell Audubon, John Woodhouse Audubon.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 30 of 11 M 1812 / Cousin Lewis & Sam’l Clarke return’d home this forenoon — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
WINTER 1812/1813
Winter: Active operations along the Niagara River frontier were discontinued pending the return of fighting weather the following spring. The garrison of Fort Niagara would be laboring to improve their fortifications, and would create five new emplacements for heavy cannon along the riverbank upstream where they could best fire upon Fort George. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Winter 1812/1813: If Napoléon Bonaparte’s proud army of 550,000 French souls was defeated in Russia on account of the weather, it was not being defeated on account of deep snows or low temperatures, for in fact this winter was turning out to be a relatively mild one, more mild than a military commander who paid attention to weather patterns might have been expecting. The army had instead been decimated as the result of heat prostration and sunstroke during a persistent heatwave the previous summer, and was continually being reduced by epidemic camp disease carried by lice, and by the point at which it began its retreat from Moscow on October 19th numbered only 100,000. The first severe frost would not occur until October 30th, and then late November would produce an unexpected thaw. The re-crossing of the swollen, flowing Beresina River on November 26th was more difficult than expected because that river had been expected to be as usual hard- frozen. However, this winter the temperature wouldn’t get below zero until December 4th. That story we have all been told, of an exceedingly bitter, unexpectably cold winter, was something that would need to be carefully spread around merely to salvage Napoleon’s reputation (like the false English story according to which this French general was a shortie, this sort of explanatory disinformation is what tends to persist and endure in popular accounts).
Winter: On a cold day toward the end of the year, Brister Freeman sought work at Wheeler’s slaughterhouse. Peter Wheeler was, as a result of the British fleet’s embargo of the port of Boston, undergoing severe financial hardship, and he quite possibly was unwell (he would expire the following May). What then transpired survives in Cyrus Stowe’s 1857 “Memoir of Peter Wheeler” as published in THE CENTENNIAL OF THE SOCIAL CIRCLE IN CONCORD, 1782-1882 (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1882): HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
Mr. Wheeler once had a most ferocious bull to kill. He and his men succeeded with some difficulty in getting the animal into his slaughter-house. They were afraid, however, to go in and encounter his fury, and, while outside conferring upon the safest mode of proceeding, Brister Freeman, the celebrated negro, happened along. Wheeler, giving his men the wink, inquired very affectionately after Brister’s health, and told him if he would go into the slaughter-house and get an axe, he should have a little job to do. Brister never suspected mischief, at once opened the door and walked in, when it was quietly shut upon him, and the appalled negro found himself face to face with the enraged bull. It was already a “case of fight or die,” after sundry minuets about the house, the celerity of which would have established a French dancing-master, Brister fortunately spied the axe he had been sent in for, and, seizing it, commenced belaboring his adversary, giving him a blow here and there as he had opportunity. All this while stood Peter and his men watching through the dry knot-holes the valiant exploits of Brister, and cheering him on with the most encouraging roars of laughter. Fortune at length decided in favor of the negro; he laid the bull dead upon the floor, and casting down his weapon of fight, came forth unharmed. But imagine the amazement of his tormentors when at length he emerged, no longer the dim, somber negro he was when he entered, but literally white with terror, and what was once his wool, standing up straight like so many pokers, they could hardly persuade themselves to believe it was Brister; but without waiting for them to identify him, or receive their congratulations for the notable manner in which he sustained himself, the affrighted and indignant negro turned his back upon them and departed.
DECEMBER
December: Robert Fulton was given the freedom of the city of New-York. He purchased the Hope from the Albany Company for $11,000.
December: In Nottinghamshire, about 5 frames were broken. In Yorkshire, 14 Luddites were hanged and 6 were sentenced to transportation.
December 1, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould became a juror: 3rd day 1 of 12 M / Rec’d this Afternoon a letter from Micajah Collins which hath been indeed as a pleasant brook by the way. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
December 2, Wednesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
4th day 2nd of 12 M / The mind occupied on various subjects of importance This eveng finished & carried to the Post Office a letter to Micajah Collins RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
December 3, Thursday: At Molodesczo, the Emperor Napoléon I issued the 29th Bulletin informing his countrymen that there has been a disaster in Russia and he would need for them to get busy and raise for him a new army of 300,000. –Hey, French people, “when the going gets tough the tough get going”!
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 3rd of 12 M / Our meeting was well attended & a comfortable season my mind was favor’d with a good degree fixedness tho’ somewhat tried with roving — C Rodman was concernd in a few warning sentences to such as rejected the truth, & A Robinson was larger in testimony to the same effect RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
December 5, Saturday: At Smorgon east of Vilna (Vilnius), Napoléon informed his generals that he was abandoning the army in retreat and making a separate dash of 12 days toward Paris, where because of the recent attempt at a coup d’état he obviously needed to be. He departed that evening.
In the Bolshaya Lipovitsa settlement in Russia, Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Grenkov was born in the family of sexton Mikhail Fyodorovich Grenkov and Marfa Nikolayevna Grenkova as the 6th of 8 children. He would become the venerable Ambrose of Optina Monastery, would be referred to in Dostoevski’s THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV as “an earthly angel and a heavenly man,” and would in 1988 be canonized (he can now be referred to as St. Ambrose of Optina).
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day & 7th day 4 & 5 of 12 M / 6th day furnished nothing worthy of remark -7th day I attended the examination of a young man taken up on suspicions of robing David Williams shop the night preceeding. he was an object of pity, but I was far from feeling him guiltless of the charge tho nothing could be proved against him.— RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
December 6, Sunday: According to the journal of Friend Thomas B. Hazard or Hafsard or Hasard of Kingstown, Rhode Island, also known as “Nailer Tom,”38 “The British Ship Macedonia, a prize to the U.S. Frigate United States got into Newport” on this day.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 6 of 12 M / To me pretty good meetings. C R spake a few words in the morng & again in the Afternoon H Dennis also was concern’d in testimony H Dennis Dined with us & before meeting brother JR came in & set with us. we soon fell into silence & H addressed him in a remarkable manner — My H went to meeting in the Afternoon - Sister Ruth took care of the child the while, & set the eveng with — brothe Isaac also called RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
December 7, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 7 of 12 M / The town has been in much stir & what some call rejoicing at the arrival of a British Frigate called the Masadonian yesterday - which was captured by the United States Frigate What man possessing real christianity will rejoice at such an occurrence especially under the corroding reflection that there are now on board many wounded some with legs & others with arms shot off with their sores still green & needing the attendance of a Surgeon, & last of all that in the action many were precipitated into an Awful Eternity. What heart possessed with human feelings will not recoil at deeds so horrible? & certainly will not the humble christian drop a tear at the depravity of poor fallen & degenerate man - parents deprived of their children, Children of their Parent &c or on their native to their hospitable board, witness the most lamentable & awful sight of their limbs shot off -OH! who can reflect on these things without exquisite pangs — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
38. He was called “Nailer Tom” because his trade was the cutting of nails from scrap iron, and in order to distinguish him from a relative known as “College Tom,” from another relative known as “Shepherd Tom,” and from his own son who –because he had fits– was known as “Pistol-Head Tom.” HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
December 8, Tuesday: Elias Hasket Derby died in Salem, Massachusetts.
This year had been a year of heavy flooding in Alta California. It had been the year in which a Russian settlement had been begun, near Bodega Bay.39 The peak of the population of dusky “neophyte” serfs was reached at Mission San Juan Capistrano, with 1,361 Juaneño souls on the mission roster. Any baptized primitive who attempted to flee would of course be searched out by the Spanish soldiers and returned to the mission for punishment, as it was considered that baptism for such a one was equivalent to enlistment for a common soldier. Attempting to run away from one’s fields and one’s sustaining labor was equivalent to desertion, treason, and/or apostasy. “On a summer-like morning, Dec. 8, 1812, mass was being celebrated. What was that distant roar? Was it the sea? The tower tottered. ... Bells swayed, tolled, were silenced and crashed to the earth. With them fell two Indian bell ringers. The door had been twisted by the earthquake and could not be unlocked. Nearly forty neophytes were buried under the stone and mortar of the fallen tower.”40 This fault passes out to sea below Newport Beach, California but in the 1812 event, the effects had been felt strongly enough that the stone domes of the basilica fell in during morning mass, crushing 40 Native American worshipers.41 Six persons present for the ceremonies escaped with their lives, witness to the infinite mercy of the Deity. The proud belfry that had been visible for ten miles around had become a pile of rubble over a mass grave, and a ruin had been created which would become rated as the most picturesque, or at least the most utterly depicted, in the Sovereign State of California.
December 9, Wednesday: The exhausted Allied army reached Vilna (Vilnius) and found it was not too exhausted to plunder.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd & 4th days / On third day nothing to insert. On fourth day rec’d a letter from D Smith which seem’d refreshing — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
39. This settlement would eventually become known as Fort Ross. 40. In a similar earthquake in October 1987 the stone basilica of nearby Mission San Gabriel did not collapse but was rendered too dangerous for occupancy. This temblor of 1812 which destroyed the historic basilica is attributed to the Newport/Inglewood strike- slip fault, which is now known to run northwest to southeast along the California coast from the Cheviot Hills overlooking what has become Culver City down through the Baldwin Hills, the Rosecrans Hills, the Dominguez Hills, Signal Hill and Reservoir Hill overlooking what has become Long Beach, Alamitos Heights and Landing Hill behind what has become Seal Beach, through the coastside Bolsa Chica Mesa, Huntington Beach Mesa, and Newport Mesa behind what has become the hoity-toity residential communities of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. This is the same fault which caused an earthquake of magnitude Richter 6.3 early in the morning of March 10, 1933, ten kilometers below the surface of the earth just offshore from Newport Beach, rupturing the shoreline for 25 kilometers. The 1933 quake killed only 120 people, in Long Beach CA, because like the recent Northridge CA quake it happened to occur very early in the morning; however, many of the school buildings in Long Beach collapsed and it was clear that thousands of children would have been crushed had the earthquake occurred during school hours. This 1933 event brought about the Field Act governing the seismic engineering of public school structures and the Riley Act governing the seismic engineering of buildings larger than two-family dwellings. The scenario which is now used in this area for planning allows for an earthquake of Richter 7.0 with 25 seconds of shaking causing surface displacements of one meter. It has been estimated that in such a scenario, worst case, there would be 23,000 dead and 91,000 hospitalized, with $69,000,000,000 in property damage (by way of contrast, only $2,400,000,000 was lost in the Orange County bankruptcy of 1995). This makes the Newport/Inglewood strike-slip zone potentially more dangerous to human life and property than the San Andreas strike-slip zone, and the most dangerous by far in the continental United States. The University of California – Irvine is 15 kilometers from this fault but most of its structures, with the exception of the Humanities Office Building (which is expected to crush people, as cracks have already been found) and the Main Library (to be renovated Summer 1996), have been rated as adequate for this planning event. It is anticipated that the primary disruption for the UCI community would be the demand on the services of the primary and secondary medical personnel of the Orange County area. 41. One person was extracted alive from the rubble. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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December 10, Thursday: Napoléon Bonaparte reached Warsaw on his way back to Paris.
Samuel Tully was hanged as a pirate on Nook’s Hill in South Boston. His accomplice, John Dalton, received a reprieve on the gallows (this is of course not the Friend John Dalton who introduced atomic theory into chemistry).42
December 11, Friday: Professor François Pierre Guillaume Guizot delivered his initial lecture as Professor of Modern History at the Sorbonne (reprinted in his MEMOIRS). His patron Louis-Marcelin de Fontanes, grand- master of the university of France, had clued him in to all the conventions, and nevertheless the newly minted professor omitted in this lecture to make any of the usual obsequious remarks about the all-powerful Emperor Napoléon I of France.
42. THE LAST WORDS OF S. TULLY WHO WAS EXECUTED FOR PIRACY, AT SOUTH BOSTON, DECEMBER 10, 1812. Boston, Printed by N. Coverly, 1812 PIRATES HDT WHAT? INDEX
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December 12, Saturday: When the remnants of the Emperor Napoléon I’s Grande Armée of the Allies straggled across the Nieman River into Prussia at Kovno, there were but 5,000 men remaining in recognizable military formations. The balance of them, whether or not they were still carrying their weapons and whether or not they still possessed ammunition, would have been useless for any military action.
December 13, Sunday: The Emperor Napoléon I reached Dresden on his way back to Paris.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 13 of 12 M / Our Meeting this forenoon was well attended but to me a poor wandering season. After I came out I thought I felt so poor & destitute that I could hardly realize that I had been setting in a meeting. — Hearing the decease of my Aged cousin Elizabeth Anthony mentioned at the close of the meeting I thought I would walk out to her late residence & passed a little time with the family, & I was glad I did as the visit & walk afforded sensations which produced very precious feelings & I was not a little thankful to feel my mind quickened with the renewals of life — My dear H attended both meetings, & in the eveng went down to see my mothers who is very unwell RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
December 14, Monday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 2nd day 14 of 12 M / I feel thankful that my mind is again today in a solid frame & not so dead & hard as yesterday in the forenoon RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
December 15, Tuesday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 3rd day 15 of 12 M / This day cousin Elizabeth Anthony was buried - I should have been glad to have attended the funeral but I thought I could hardly spare the time. She was first cousin to my father & a relation he much exteemed. — Aunt Patty Gould told me a few evengs ago that since her rememberance there were of them 28 own cousins living & that she was acquainted with 27. there are now only 7 remaining. — This evening called to see Edw & Mary Lawton this is the first time I have called on them since their marriage of which I feel ashamed, as they have been intimate friends & relations. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
December 16, Wednesday: A cantata for “La Goguette” by Luigi Cherubini was performed in Paris at a meeting of that singing society. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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December 17, Thursday: The 29th Bulletin of December 3d of the Emperor Napoléon was published at Paris.
The Piano Concerto no.2 J.155 by Carl Maria von Weber was performed for the initial time, in Gotha, with the composer himself at the keyboard. Weber would report that everything “went excellently.”
Upon orders from General William Henry Harrison, Lieutenant Colonel John B. Campbell took a detachment of 600 mounted troops on a sweep down the Mississinewa River valley, to destroy all the villages of native Americans there all the way from what is present-day (relocated) Somerset to what is now the city of Peru (“PEE-roo”) on the Wabash River. This of course was genocide, but it was all right because neither the word nor the concept had yet been invented — and of course it would be mere presentism to condemn the past on the basis of present-day enlightened attitudes. Anyway, on this day the armed white men arrived at a Miami village and destroyed it at the cost of two dead troopers and eight dead native Americans. Then the troopers proceeded downriver for a couple of miles, destroying a couple of other villages, before they returned to site of their initial triumph in order to bivouac for the night.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 17th of 12 M / Last night D Rodman & myself watched with John Cooke; he died this morng at exactly 5 OClock In consequence my last nights Watching I feel very miserable today with a pain in my side & drowsiness, & have not felt able to attend meeting. I understood however that it was a quiet season & C Rodman & H Dennis had short testimonys to deliver. RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
December 18, Friday shortly before dawn: You know how, in the movies, the Injuns always attack in the quiet just before dawn? Miami and Delaware braves assaulted Lieutenant Colonel Campbell’s command right on schedule, and kept up their assault for a couple of hours, during which time 10 more whites were killed and 48 wounded, and about a hundred of their horses killed, with the surviving 588 troopers claiming, on their part, 40 confirmed kills. We know that exactly 12 white men were killed in this two days of interracial negotiation, because we now have exactly 12 white memorial stones each with a name and rank and a military organization of origin. The attack being broken off, in the late afternoon the 588 white survivors hightailed it back to Fort Greenville.43
Some of the stragglers of the Grand Armée reached Bialystok and crossed into Austrian territory, and safety. Only some 93,000 souls would be celebrating the New Year, of the 550,000 that had marched east across the Russian border of the Vistula River that summer. On this day the Emperor Napoléon arrived back in Paris.
December 19, Saturday: Allied forces evacuated Riga.
43. This episode in our American race relations is now celebrated annually in Wabash, Indiana, and with no particular sensitivity to race relations. HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
December 20, Sunday: Intending to undertake another concert tour, Carl Maria von Weber left Gotha.
At Fort Manuel in what is now South Dakota, Sacagawea died. William Clark, in St. Louis, assumed custody of Jean Baptiste and her infant daughter, Lisette. (Legends would arise later, that it was Charbonneau’s other wife who had died, and that Sacagawea herself lived until the late 1800s and died on the Shoshone reservation in Wyoming — but these legends are without corroboration.)
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 1st day 20 of 12 M 1812 / On sixth & seventh days I was much unwell on Sixth day my side was so painful that I was obliged to leave my shop & Doctor pretty sharply thro’ the Day — I am today much better but feel the effects of it — Attended Meetings —father Rodman had service in the morng - in the Afternoon silent & after Meeting brother D Rodman & I went to visit the work & Alms houses & in the eveng went a little while to D Williams — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
1812 1812
December 23, Wednesday: Jephtas Gelübde, an opera by Meyer Beer (Giacomo Meyerbeer) to words of Schreiber, was performed for the initial time, in the Court Theater, München. Although he had been nervous and troubled as this performance approached, and although it was not well received, the composer was greatly pleased at the outcome.
December 24, Thursday: Anhalt-Bernburg-Schaumburg-Hoym, having been separated from Anhalt- Bernburg in 1707, was rejoined to the Duchy.
Arthur Wellesley, Viscount Wellington arrived in Cádiz to accept command of the Spanish armies from the cortes.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 24 of 12 M / Second third & fourth days passed with the usual rounds - Our Meeting today was rather small & silent & to me a dull season tho’ I think there was not that hardness which I sometimes feel - In the last (Preparative) A certificate was requested for O Williams & family — This Afternoon in company with the others of the committee visited Sarah Stevens again & it proved a season of favor tho’ way does not open in her mind to make acknowledgement or request a longer continuance of the subject under the care of the Moy [Monthly] Meeting — When I first went my mind was under great leaness & Poverty for sometime but by keeping down & attending to the little & keeping close to the little life afforded, I found it to increase & I became sweetly tendered & had much more to offer than had any expectation of, & I believe the opportunity will not soon be forgotten - as we left her much tenderer in spirit RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
December 25, Friday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 6th day 25 of 12 M / Mine heart hath been sweetly tendered at seasons this the Day for which I desire to be thankful, at such seasons I am rejoiced even if my feelings are but very low, Yet if I am but favor’d with feeling I consider it a blessing & an evidence that Good has not left me. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
December 26, Saturday: Carl Maria von Weber reached Leipzig from Gotha.
Great Britain announced a blockade of Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay.
Tamerlano, a melodramma seria by Johann Simon Mayr to words of Romanelli after Voltaire, was performed for the initial time, in Teatro alla Scala, Milan.
December 27, Sunday: Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: HDT WHAT? INDEX
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1 day 27 of 12 M / My Meetings today were attended with but little life in the Afternoon C Rodman had a few words to communicate which I believe were in the life. After meeting in the Afternoon I went with Brother D Rodman to Jon a Dennis & spent the eveng very agreeably RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
December 29: At this point during the 1812-1815 war with Great Britain, the USS Constitution captured the British frigate HMS Java and five smaller vessels off the coast of Brazil. In the process they took into custody Lieutenant-General Thomas Hislop, governor of India.
The Violin Sonata op.96 by Ludwig van Beethoven was performed for the initial time, at the home of Prince Lobkowitz in Vienna. The performers were the violinist Jacques Pierre Joseph Rode and Archduke Rudolph.
December 30, Wednesday: Russian troops surrounded Prussian forces who were among the allies evacuating Riga. The Prussians, in the “Convention of Tauroggen,” declared themselves neutral. Even though the act was unknown to King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia, it signaled a change of heart among Germans.
Ludwig van Beethoven petitioned the estate of Prince Kinsky that he be paid his stipend at the revalued rate to which the Prince had agreed (before being thrown by his horse and dying).
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 4th day 30 of 12 M / With this Day I finish my 31 Year of my life. I feel most sensibly feel that time with me is passing away very swiftly & that I Shall soon come to a conclusion & Oh that I may be prepared RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
December 31, Thursday: In München, Meyer Beer (Giacomo Meyerbeer) played the piano at a concert to benefit wounded Bavarian soldiers. His performance so overwhelmed everyone that when he entered the room at the dinner that followed, the guests burst into applause.
Friend Stephen Wanton Gould wrote in his journal: 5th day 31st of 12 M 1812 / Sister ELiza & Mary Briggs being willing to keep house for us & take care of our little son I went with my H to Portsmouth to attend Our Moy [Monthly] Meeting which was to me a good time Hannah Dennis was concerned in a lively & well Authorized testimony Also Sarah Fish — In the last Meeting buisness was conducted in good harmony, tho’ some things of an exercising nature was before us — Sarah Stevens was disowned - & it was agreed to cut the Wood from the lot on which Portsmouth Meeting House stands which is supposed will sell for money sufficient to pay the present Debt of the Meeting We dined at Peter Lawtons & rode home before Dark & learn’d our little boy had done well without his Mother. — RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS HDT WHAT? INDEX
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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2015. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at
“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST
Prepared: June 17, 2015 HDT WHAT? INDEX
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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT
GENERATION HOTLINE
This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button. HDT WHAT? INDEX
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Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.
First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with
General Events of 1812 SPRING JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH SUMMER APRIL MAY JUNE FALL JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER WINTER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER
Following the death of Jesus Christ there was a period of readjustment that lasted for approximately one million years. –Kurt Vonnegut, THE SIRENS OF TITAN
GO ON TO EVENTS OF 1813